tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31806102024-03-06T14:02:14.274-06:00simplerich strikes backPersonal blog in every sense of the phrase. What's going on with me. It'll have my writing practice and progress and personal stuff as well. Always interesting, but maybe not always to the same people. :)Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.comBlogger328125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-9008710351243869162022-08-04T03:28:00.001-05:002023-07-19T00:54:50.656-05:00A gay kid looking...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvmgY2ErcAvUc-eeXDypFcKvAPYcmqBB53WIo7gFjXD1qGtKc8iSC8IhkPDXP2obiHYnns7jxHluWYOWt2PqeQiePgJwjdl_VREPbzZHYcE1eWqI_APa0v4FdWaKrNW15b53MAc1o9yE9YaN85v1xZ9mIlEsO6ICOoxdZSMyA9ouMtwuYqA/s4032/PXL_20220527_101906989.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvmgY2ErcAvUc-eeXDypFcKvAPYcmqBB53WIo7gFjXD1qGtKc8iSC8IhkPDXP2obiHYnns7jxHluWYOWt2PqeQiePgJwjdl_VREPbzZHYcE1eWqI_APa0v4FdWaKrNW15b53MAc1o9yE9YaN85v1xZ9mIlEsO6ICOoxdZSMyA9ouMtwuYqA/w400-h300/PXL_20220527_101906989.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Short version: Gay kid looking for a church that's supportive.<p></p><p>My first response is "Don't do that to yourself." But that wasn't what they wanted. They wanted a church where they could build a relationship with a loving God that accepted that they were gay. So, what do I do? I call around and try to find one for them by contacting people I know at various churches in town that I suspected would be good fits.</p><p>And that should've been the end of it, but it got me thinking. That's always dangerous. </p><p>What is a good person? Make a list of the qualities that you believe make a good person. What values? What attitudes? What actions would you say are in the "good person" column? </p><p>The problem with asking that is that so many people give really good answers. That shouldn't be a problem.</p><p>The problem comes in when they talk about their politics. </p><p>If a person's politics don't align with their values, the values that they think constitute a good and moral person... what does that say about them? The politics a person espouses is an extension of their actual values. It's the way an individual attempts to expand their influence in the world and when the political candidate doesn't display any of the values that a person says, themselves, are attributes of a good person... I can't think they're actually good people themselves.</p><p>If you recognize a set of values as desirable, as noteworthy, as goals to be aspired to, but then ignore those when it comes to political decisions... that's not good. That's hypocrisy.</p><p>There's someone at work who claims to be a Randian level conservative but who has their hand out for free drinks when it's hot at work, and bitches when they're not there. They want the handouts for themselves, but they vote against any social program that they can. They want the handouts for themselves... they don't want YOU to have any, but they will take them, happily. Hypocrisy.</p><p>Super annoying.</p><p>What's this got to do with churches? Well, the values they teach... are they the ones they practice? They talk about loving god. They say we're all sinners. They say we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But as a gay... it's hard to get past the part where I've been the gay told I was good enough to attend the church but not good enough to be a member OF the church so long as I was gay. Because some sins are more sins than others and to a lot of churches being gay is a special kind of sin that God needs help judging because He can't do it on his own so they do it for Him. </p><p>So, would I recommend a church on purpose, to anyone? Nah. In my experience, it's just a place where people are nicer about their bigotry... usually. </p><p>But that wasn't the assignment. The assignment was to help a gay kid find a church because that's what they wanted. I hope it works out for them.</p>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-13170950582004621142022-06-25T17:33:00.002-05:002023-07-19T00:55:59.153-05:00Upped the dose<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG9H8hmJh2A2nTdtdli2qzWa3GXztv1hr5jS_IaZasbJrzErUHF92ypZRKGZjGWMG6gFOuaIgSdV8R1-tI70kH5Kp-M-k97a2rN_dbV60SAw_QoPgrwT_xESdYhpGMu4zFPKr9WMkGwEmDrYtRhENz5_jttPvQw5VBo_eAVwICUIqVift8tQ/s1170/B60784F5-7BD0-408B-B3FB-F0FA5736BD86.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1142" data-original-width="1170" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG9H8hmJh2A2nTdtdli2qzWa3GXztv1hr5jS_IaZasbJrzErUHF92ypZRKGZjGWMG6gFOuaIgSdV8R1-tI70kH5Kp-M-k97a2rN_dbV60SAw_QoPgrwT_xESdYhpGMu4zFPKr9WMkGwEmDrYtRhENz5_jttPvQw5VBo_eAVwICUIqVift8tQ/s320/B60784F5-7BD0-408B-B3FB-F0FA5736BD86.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Nobody follows this which is cool. Means I can talk about stuff without anybody reading it. I process things by writing them out. Like there's a boil in my brain that needs lancing and writing is how I do that.<p></p><p>Roe V Wade happened and that's not great but I'm a self absorbed douche and fixated on Thomas's opinion that gay rights should be tossed out. Not just marriage but also making gay sex a criminal offense.</p><p>I have been sort of numb since then. I know how I am. I've intentionally avoided deleting everything and going full hermit but one thing I absolutely don't need or want is well meaning straight people saying to not worry. They're not the ones being told they deserve to be locked away from normal people because their existence is an offense against society. Frankly I don't want to hear it right now. I want to look at the horizon and see plumes of smoke as it all burns to the fucking ground.</p><p>I've upped the dose on the antidepressants. Be better to be numb I think... I know. At least for a while. It's not numb as much as so jittery I can't focus on anything long enough to spiral. The hard part is knowing when to go off or drop the dose back down to a maintenance level. I normally only go up for fall, seasonal affected depression they call it, SAD. An unfortunate acronym actually. </p><p>How long is this season going to last? Is this the season for now tho? They're lifetime appointments. How much worse is it going to get? How much is my innate cynicism and how much is reality?</p><p>But, work's a thing. It doesn't care... It just keeps happening and I gotta keep going. One of my things is I make myself go, make myself have at least one stable thing that's not fucked up. So, here I am in the parking lot early rather than sitting at home, spiraling. Five more twelve hour shifts and not enough sleep before I am off so I won't have to deal with thinking for a while. That's nice. Easy enough to coast through the rut of work and not think... The edge will be off by then probably.</p><p>I have to pee. Not because I've over hydrated in anticipation of it being hot as balls at work but because I've drank probably a pot of coffee this morning. Not a great idea. I'll have worse ones I'm sure. If that's my worst I'm doing okay, honestly.</p><p>Take care of yourself. </p><p><br /></p>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-65852874976587755642020-11-13T20:31:00.000-06:002020-11-13T20:31:11.275-06:00Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Initial thoughts. Hint: Not a fan.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After 8 hours of game play I have left Norway and landed on England's shores where I'm going to live now, because I'm pissy with Daddy for making a deal so somebody else gets to be king. I wish I were joking.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwkkyefBG-OWlVLwJ-opDJhNJ2nPdTjHZ2ntm_7HBv6pSDlnh2ANEo6bvTMtGsleVFrO_AdA4MSUbr6Q5aJwmjnE0BSd4TCRPm6JmHR5A-GkqwyPBl68CDAt6juxkCsBdyfLR/s480/assassins-creed-valhalla-iconic-england-female-eivor-1588330153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwkkyefBG-OWlVLwJ-opDJhNJ2nPdTjHZ2ntm_7HBv6pSDlnh2ANEo6bvTMtGsleVFrO_AdA4MSUbr6Q5aJwmjnE0BSd4TCRPm6JmHR5A-GkqwyPBl68CDAt6juxkCsBdyfLR/s320/assassins-creed-valhalla-iconic-england-female-eivor-1588330153.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, that's the motivation for an entire game. Pissed off kid, stomps off, leaves home because he didn't get what he wanted so he takes his toys and goes somewhere else. Oh joy.</div></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div>Am I avenging my son's death by hunting down his murderers and stumbling across a huge conspiracy across time itself like in Origins? Nope. Pissy kid doesn't get his way so he leaves.<p></p><p>Am I trying to reunite my family and redeem my brother and save them from a secretive cult, while battling mythological creatures, that's bent on destroying our civilization like in Odyssey? Nope. Spoiled child scoops up his toys and runs away from home in a temper tantrum accompanied by pillage, murder, and mayhem.</p><p>Want to be mayor of a town and play a city building sim? You're gonna LOVE AC:V. See, in spite of England already having a blacksmith, stable, and general store in every village and hamlet and crossroads you can find, for some reason you want to build your very own that does the exact same thing theirs does. I MEAN EXACT. And the only way to do that is to raid, destroy, and pillage, wait for it... wait for it... monasteries. Yup. Churches are the only source of the supplies I need to build a stable. Why? There's no actual logic to it. Just shut up and go burn down monasteries and build a building to fill with horse shit.</p><p>I just lost 3 hours game play where it apparently never autosaved like it claims it does. That's half my game play for the entire day. I even think I saved once but it didn't recognize it when I reset the frozen game. What was I doing that was so game-breakingly bad? I tried to stand up from a crouch.</p><p>If I were loving the game it wouldn't be that big a deal but I'm only kinda liking it.</p><p>If you're considering Assassin's Creed Valhalla wait for a sale. </p><p>Odin Vision is useless. Your eagle is a crow, or raven, and is useless. If you shoot something in the tall grass you're not gonna find it so don't bother looking. Everything is behind a barred door which in spite of having giant axes you have to do a puzzle to get through. Sometimes I can chain assassinate and sometimes I can't with no clue why not. You'll find a cursed area with no clue or hint or indication how to fix it. Your allies are sadists and torturous assholes. England is apparently the land of 20,000 rivers. You can get tattoos but you can't actually see them because every outfit completely covers you wrist to neck to ankles. Nothing on the map shows up on the HUD until you're on top of it. Comparing equipment is meaningless because you can't see the stats if upgraded on the compare screen and there's no DPS value anywhere to be found so which axe is better? No way to know. </p><p>Overall I completely regret the money spent on the expensive edition I got based on their last two games which I loved and have played for hundreds of hours. That money would've been better spent paying somebody to just slap me randomly throughout the day for the next week or so. I'd regret that too but at least I wouldn't be allied with people who torture folks as a hobby like I am in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.<br /></p><p>I'm not asking the Vikings to be nice. I'm asking the game designers to give us the option to not be torturous ass hats as a play style. </p><p>I'm not providing an affiliate link to it because honestly. I don't want you to buy this game. I wouldn't enjoy the money I made off your bad decision. I'd feel guilty. </p>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-14434651613575804812020-07-06T23:40:00.001-05:002020-07-06T23:40:08.164-05:00I like team movies... why?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7l3L_WsmVjjX1sAk81cj7EdKHY9_wf-3f-mnDSCLqBauuh2SsRM0ZHyRHkBHqWXRvNfsrKlXi2GtVvCDK-PUhyphenhyphenM-HgXtmhoONGdRCT6Ms52wfoZBce__IaADHSozLoekzCRl/s600/avatar-aang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7l3L_WsmVjjX1sAk81cj7EdKHY9_wf-3f-mnDSCLqBauuh2SsRM0ZHyRHkBHqWXRvNfsrKlXi2GtVvCDK-PUhyphenhyphenM-HgXtmhoONGdRCT6Ms52wfoZBce__IaADHSozLoekzCRl/s320/avatar-aang.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I like shows like this with teams working together... shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417299/">Avatar the Last Airbender</a> (series not movie) where there's Team Avatar, and <a href="https://www.crunchyroll.com/gurren-lagann">Gurren Lagann</a>, and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HafASrKaCYA">Naruto</a>, the first series.</div><div><br /></div><div>They all focus on one of the team members as the protagonist and the protagonist needs to learn to work together with a team and rely on others and they need to learn to trust and rely on him as well to achieve more than they could as a collection of individuals.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's my favorite kind of movie. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFmKZN7jtM8">Avengers Endgame</a> is an excellent example of that happening. That group of strong, capable individuals, all of whom are accustomed to being the coolest person in the room learning to subsume that inclination into believing that they are powerful cogs in an even more powerful machine that is the team.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Persevering against all odds to achieve great things together when you definitely couldn't do it alone.</i> That will make me happy cry just about every time in a movie or well-done TV series.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of my favorite things about my previous job as a store manager and as a manager of managers was to see how effectively we could work as a collective, as a team. Everybody moving in the same direction at the same time and all working to carry the whole store along, not just themselves. I feel like I did that okay, helped bring out a team feeling without saying team often at all. I think that metaphor is overused in the workplace.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://quotefancy.com/quote/1112774/Lois-McMaster-Bujold-I-ve-got-forward-momentum-There-s-no-virtue-in-it-It-s-just-a" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFHL6LfkMcSx2IAG0vibJkno-EZ3tSVjsSOKqNV7pmVIJ6tqudCc3FWF82xxA2lt2nb79YZnaBb0wD03CNxUtebiDFMqFwZ1CEV0lhOx1lT8TeSw0YMb6FMvlwoSZy7RBVLD4U/s320/589229-Lois-McMaster-Bujold-Quote-I-ve-got-forward-momentum-There-s-no.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It's something I miss a lot at this job. It's just me most of the time. I mean, I'm a mechanic on a press. There's not really a lot of use for more than one at a time. But I miss that feeling of being a part of something bigger moving in the same direction for the greater good of something to achieve more.<br /><br /></div><div>A thing I do/did... when I'm walking somewhere I pick up stuff on the floor. There's always stuff on the floor that needs picking up. If I'm talking with someone as I walk, less now than before because of my job and social distancing, etc. But if I'm walking and talking and start picking up stuff... it's not long before the other person is too. Not always, but often. I don't say anything, I just do it to see how long it takes them to do it as well... I'd like to think that something like that could be catching. That idea that seeing something needs doing and doing it because we're all in the same boat is a good one to be a part of.</div><div><br /></div><div>I see it in the shows I listed above.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kC6wdfk2M98" width="320" youtube-src-id="kC6wdfk2M98"></iframe></div>One of my <b>favorite quotes from a TV series</b> is from Gurren Lagann and it goes something like, <i>"If you don't believe in yourself believe in the me that believes in you</i>." I love that. I've said that to people before. "<i>Do you trust me? Do you think I'm a good judge of character and of people? Do you think I'm stupid or make stupid decisions? Okay then... I believe you can do it. Trust me and believe me and act like you can because I believe in you. Trust and believe me when it's hard for you to believe yourself. Don't let fear stop you. Remember I know you can do it and do it. I know you can</i>."</div><div><br /></div><div>It works. Having people around you who believe in you, who trust you, who have your back and you have theirs... people are capable of so much more when that's the case. Everybody does better. Everybody wins. I love that. I love that feeling.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/idealism-and-realism.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="850" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefyfyqKrSG4cPg7k4rzNDKprMNBGJartWqEWO0n26qen5GDRpR4HmeNz9HPR3hpKlz85fpXFCmzQxhRQohym-MRqwNz1zrK959uzfIy7-9prA1hxNFAjHFnhKuEJZ5cLv_OXl/w400-h189/quote-an-idealist-is-a-person-who-helps-other-people-to-be-prosperous-henry-ford-9-91-67.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I'm often accused of being an idealist. I'm only an idealist because I've seen this happen. I know it's real. I know it can happen and can work. I've done it. I've been there when it was done. I've been a part of it and it's awesome. It's like "being in the zone" all the time because when one character in the show slips or stumbles, they don't even slow down their movement forward because there's someone there to catch them by the elbow and keep them moving forward toward their shared goal.</div>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.168015799999992-12.299436922094308 -164.48051579999998 90 -23.855515799999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-29565070534016967192020-07-04T13:43:00.001-05:002020-07-04T13:43:31.643-05:00July 4th -- Independence Day<p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 6px;">Happy 4th of July.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Independence Day.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzwlOVt_XF6O6DvCHUekWOTBqayQfcBz14XvI23s-jM8p-wx3_IL3tTifC7S5t5cJjB_C6iTd3Joix45AoPIZu9TmEMrFQLo2dO-tYq6GJH8RSRlCjbekQbw_lIKD1LyjToE5/s246/2644250534_1e33bd8bc7%255B14%255D" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzwlOVt_XF6O6DvCHUekWOTBqayQfcBz14XvI23s-jM8p-wx3_IL3tTifC7S5t5cJjB_C6iTd3Joix45AoPIZu9TmEMrFQLo2dO-tYq6GJH8RSRlCjbekQbw_lIKD1LyjToE5/s0/2644250534_1e33bd8bc7%255B14%255D" /></a></div>A day in which the United States celebrates breaking off from England to become our own country. At the time we were pissed off that we were being taxed but not getting a say in the way things were done. King George made the decisions and we paid taxes but had no voice.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">This year there have been lots of voices raised as people feel like they're not being heard. They feel like they have legitimate complaints about the government of our country that they feel isn't fairly representing them or speaking for them.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">From the second paragraph of our <a href="https://www.military.com/july-4th/the-declaration-independence.html">Declaration of Independence,</a> a declaration of war against our then legitimate rulers:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px; text-align: left;">"<i>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness</i>."</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Our country wasn't founded by perfect men. Some signers of the constitution didn't recognize black people as actual people, but as chattel, property. And it wasn't until the 13th Amendment that slavery itself was outlawed. They weren't perfect. The country they built wasn't perfect and still isn't.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRP2C-87YHUiKQ1cTah4ZpqytJx_QCa9Rm3JP6dM_IKhmOqlK2Tl0PCwt6HwXgArzp5tcFkW0DcAbKZDoPOelaOyUNSuhoBg47SqSlLNTcDPCSE3BarMYUO3XrRGHnUO5ggA0S/s3264/20130717_124200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRP2C-87YHUiKQ1cTah4ZpqytJx_QCa9Rm3JP6dM_IKhmOqlK2Tl0PCwt6HwXgArzp5tcFkW0DcAbKZDoPOelaOyUNSuhoBg47SqSlLNTcDPCSE3BarMYUO3XrRGHnUO5ggA0S/s320/20130717_124200.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>But it has, built into it, a system by which we the people, are able to make it better; not just better for us, but better for all of us. We are at our best when we are doing great things in the world. We went to the moon in under ten years. We fought a war on two fronts, and won with help from allies, chief among them, the country we had broken away from 200 years before! We are a country that builds things that are testaments to the human spirit. The Hoover Dam, The Twin Towers. Cape Canaveral.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">We are at our best when we try and make things better for ourselves and for the world at large.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Sometimes we lose our way. Sometimes we hear that we aren't the best and we lash out at the person who says it. We get defensive of our country because we genuinely love her, for all her flaws. She's ours and we love her. And we can talk shit about her if we want to, but if someone else does... well... the gloves come off.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Sometimes though, sometimes, maybe we should listen. Sometimes it's okay to admit that while we're a great country full of great people who do amazing things every day... there are those among us who could do better. And we, as Americans, are at our best when we help people become better versions of themselves.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Independence day. It's about freedom. It's a celebration OF that freedom and why we have it. Think though, between now and next year's 4th... are we doing our best to help others be their best? I'm not saying we can't defend our country from legitimate attacks. I'm not saying Al Qaida has a point. I'm saying when enough American voices cry out that there is a problem... perhaps... as good Americans who love this country... we should do what we as Americans do best... perhaps we should try to make it better.. for everyone.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">It's not unpatriotic to wish to do better. It's unpatriotic to tell those who are brave enough to tell us when we're falling short of our aim at being the best we can be to shut up and sit down. When we quit looking for ways to get better, when we quit trying to improve, we're done.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">It's not about making America great again. It's about every day trying to be better people and a better nation than we were before. That's our job as Americans. If you don't leave your country BETTER than you found it you're doing it wrong.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">She's given you a lot of opportunities here. We're a country of great wealth, great resources, and the freedom to exploit them in a way that can improve things for now, and for the future for me, for you, for everyone... but only if we make a point of doing it. Only if we value what our founding fathers valued... what they outlined in the Declaration of Independence when King George wouldn't listen to their concerns the founding fathers had this to say on July 4th, 1776...</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px; text-align: left;"><i>"when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."</i></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">We need to listen to these people who are unhappy. We need to pay attention to how we can get better and work to get better. It's what we, as a country, have done for generations. We don't do it quickly sometimes, and we don't do it painlessly sometimes. But we have been a nation of people who strive to be moral, honest, and to help ensure the freedom, liberty, and opportunity for ourselves, and for people all over the world.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">We didn't do that by shutting down those within the country who expressed a dissenting opinion. Those times in history were not us at our best. McCarthyism wasn't our best day.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">Don't take a criticism as an attack. Take it as an American duty to constantly be better than we were before. Take it as love for the country we all live in. It's okay to love something so much you want to help it be better when you think you can.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;">I know a lot of people won't like this post. It'll appear political and we, sadly, have reached a point in US Politics where disagreement is seen as unpatriotic, as treasonous, as "if you don't like it get out." That makes me sad. Women didn't get to vote. Black people were originally property, like a suitcase or a walking stick. But we saw that and we tried to be better. It's not unpatriotic to want to be better. It's American.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELDq3sMAhyphenhyphenmC0r-VbHy03wNcHotANs-Rr2ORCvcFOiB6lCkRcdNbg_IH5xzCPyoJE6OulmT0Fff4sb2a-gKl15NCD2l50DK3tXWlaaAd47hurHqVRgb_erQ-8fM3EgSV5oruf/s2048/20160724_115251_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELDq3sMAhyphenhyphenmC0r-VbHy03wNcHotANs-Rr2ORCvcFOiB6lCkRcdNbg_IH5xzCPyoJE6OulmT0Fff4sb2a-gKl15NCD2l50DK3tXWlaaAd47hurHqVRgb_erQ-8fM3EgSV5oruf/s320/20160724_115251_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This picture was taken at my parent's house. I typically go there this time of year to sweat my ass off in Tennessee, see the flowers Mom has blooming everywhere, and eat delicious fried Southern food. I couldn't this year because of the Corona Virus. I wish I could be there. I wish I could have seen my nephew graduate from Navy Bootcamp in Chicago this spring. But, that's not where we are at right now as a world.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 0px;">These opinions are just mine, they're long-winded as usual, and I doubt anyone will read them if you made it this far Happy Independence Day. Try and do better tomorrow and the next day at making our country better, more free for everyone, and a place the world looks to again for leadership and guidance, and inspiration. That's the America I fell in love with. That's the America I joined the Navy to defend.</p>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-36391788519167360952020-06-14T11:01:00.003-05:002020-06-16T14:47:48.750-05:00Left anti-social media<br />What I'd thought was a fairly innocuous post on Facebook prompted me to finally leave the platform. Sadly, I don't have a copy of the post. I forgot to grab a screen-grab of it and, well, I've left so I can't go get it. It was along the lines of, <i>"I can't believe saying you wish the police would kill fewer people in their custody has become a controversial political statement."</i><br />
<i></i><br />I had several likes, loves, and cares reacts which was fine, but then I got...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmN1jyerooKjoc8J50CeYaNOlzKS6iRJugDtO_-3jPikcpRg2U3yEcTl0fxOv7BKHT_rRNwI55mzHG-9xTWN_HGYGugq4vafF_SMYi9uSSlzYDXswBBKMOPQRUs0YWfZGy4q2/s1600/18mroh6nyy2gfpng.png" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="548" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmN1jyerooKjoc8J50CeYaNOlzKS6iRJugDtO_-3jPikcpRg2U3yEcTl0fxOv7BKHT_rRNwI55mzHG-9xTWN_HGYGugq4vafF_SMYi9uSSlzYDXswBBKMOPQRUs0YWfZGy4q2/s200/18mroh6nyy2gfpng.png" width="198" /></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><u></u><br />
<ul>
<li>MaYBE peOplE shOuLDN't ReSISt ArrESt So Much.</li>
<li>Can'T THey DeFEnD theMSelVeS?</li>
</ul>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /><div><b>My reaction on the day was very different than how this post reads. I was sad, depressed, and in an almost mourning state. People at work, several people commented that I looked like someone had died and asked if I was okay. I lied... I said I was. I wasn't. That hurt, not the words, but what I felt lay behind the words.</b></div><div><b></b><br /></div><div>So, yeah. My comment that something as basic as wishing people weren't being killed turned into political talking points. Something I'd precisely said I found unbelievable. And there it was. I wasn't a person anymore, even to other people I liked. I was a sounding board for them to spew their agenda. I wasn't their friend or their family member. I was an audience for them to regurgitate their doctrine onto.<br /></div>
<br />If that's what's social media is going to be during a double-whammy national crisis it can do it without me. If they see me only as someone to talk at and not someone to engage with, and by 'they' I mean more than the two I got replies from. It happens a lot. If they see me not as someone to listen to as well as engage with then I haven't got any real reason to spend my energy engaging with them.<br />
<br />That's normally a reason to remove someone from my stream, just block them and move on, not leave the place entirely. I'm aware of how the Internet works. You don't pick up your toys and go home every time someone says something you don't like. But this time it sort of hit harder because one of the people was my Mom.<br />
<br />I remember saying at one point that I felt like we'd be friends even if we weren't related. We have a lot in common. We like the same books, and enjoy the same things that we find relaxing. Our ideas of a good vacation line up pretty well. I genuinely enjoy visiting my parents and spent my vacations, of which I didn't get many because of the new job, visiting them. Well, did until the whole pandemic thing. I love them and I miss them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj053Z8v0p_tb-7mjMxqt1JZcSsQVaHgnSkW04_i35d7HcA5wRzFeKZlorc8TUmdJ92kM8dKFV2yLF_eSb1X5KfPqjgwyTGfAb9efhACCBE1M4-sTVN6N3Me_Y3NXk9FwtLY74g/s1600/IMG_0601.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj053Z8v0p_tb-7mjMxqt1JZcSsQVaHgnSkW04_i35d7HcA5wRzFeKZlorc8TUmdJ92kM8dKFV2yLF_eSb1X5KfPqjgwyTGfAb9efhACCBE1M4-sTVN6N3Me_Y3NXk9FwtLY74g/s320/IMG_0601.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>But people change over time. Dad's been addicted to Fox News for years. I genuinely believe if they made a way to just get that on his TV he'd subscribe to that option instead of the other ones because I don't know if he watches anything but that, Survivor, and college football. And honestly, I feel like he's not the same person he was when I was growing up. I don't mean because I'm older or because he's older. I mean because anybody, ANYBODY, subjected to as much of a single viewpoint as that is going to change what they believe and they're going to believe it because it's all there is out there. No other viewpoints matter except the one the person is brainwashing themselves with. Mom lives in the same house. It's the same thing. There's only one viewpoint, period, ever.<br />
<br />Dad's not the only person who does it. Fox News came to exist because a lot of people felt other choices didn't represent their beliefs, their opinions. Particularly conservatives. So, Fox News filled that niche. Talk Radio filled that niche. And now there's a conservative echo chamber that reinforces itself so no other noise or opinion can get in and anyone who doesn't believe it is naive, stupid, and ill-informed.<br />
<br />The left isn't immune to that. Ever watched MSNBC? It's painfully left-leaning. But this isn't about the media. It's about Facebook. If you're curious how biased your news media source is <span id="goog_1762658824"></span><span id="goog_1762658825"></span><a href="https://www.adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Media-Bias-Chart-5.1_Dec_2019_Ed_-Unlicensed-Social-Media-1-scaled.jpg" target="_blank">go look here,</a> like actually look and pay attention to what you're looking at. Try and think for yourself without just believing anything but your media choice is wrong. Get differing opinions from a variety of media sources even. But, at the least, look at the chart and <a href="https://www.adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Media-Bias-Chart-5.1_Dec_2019_Ed_-Unlicensed-Social-Media-1-scaled.jpg" target="_blank">read the axes</a>. If you're going to subscribe to a particular propaganda at least do it with your eyes open.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nLpzwv1cP2ZI2X_CJgoC8j5ae_rG5Z4L-lfi56sYzbH7asdgxZzLvePd4T1z588pJf0oU2JMNEPhPhB8KQhyNkAYqkYk5pkskE7Ly2C6y3IvOe31yx_f0RWWu0z5XbvcoO6S/s1600/160125114628-donald-trump-quote-shoot-somebody-super-169.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="1100" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nLpzwv1cP2ZI2X_CJgoC8j5ae_rG5Z4L-lfi56sYzbH7asdgxZzLvePd4T1z588pJf0oU2JMNEPhPhB8KQhyNkAYqkYk5pkskE7Ly2C6y3IvOe31yx_f0RWWu0z5XbvcoO6S/s320/160125114628-donald-trump-quote-shoot-somebody-super-169.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Our current president has no interest in being president of the United States. He's president of his followers as long as they do what he tells them to. If they disagree with him they're fired. He's had the highest cabinet turn-over I can ever remember. Nobody lasts under him. They dissent and they're fired. He brooks no other voices but his own. And his followers, those who subscribe to his media of choice, have decided to emulate him. And so, Facebook has become Us vs Them.<br />
<br />We're one country. We're one nation. We're one family in some specific cases. So, if I say something I think is relatively simple to agree with, "The police should kill fewer people in their custody," and it turns out to disagree with the party line and I get reasons why it's okay to kill people if you're a cop. That's... that's disturbing. That's not listening anymore. It's not seeing me as a person you know and care about. Now I'm just a dissenting opinion and that sucks.<br />
<br />Yes, obviously police can defend themselves. Yes, sometimes a policeman can have someone resist arrest and that person ends up dead, but the punishment for resisting arrest isn't death... but that's not what I was talking about and they know it. But they couldn't ignore the chance for their talking point.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLbaryo4kjdQrK3gYjzvub8ZfxsJX6hdy-1lhB5i12ZGZFx6HBxKZBade5Xw42h560WgzxGnEAmQSZ_yMNA9QjDF3rqMgKXwBBTDC3rTrJ9w9vhIlTVzv9Nud7w9ksKyomYwv/s1600/goebbels-quote-propaganda.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLbaryo4kjdQrK3gYjzvub8ZfxsJX6hdy-1lhB5i12ZGZFx6HBxKZBade5Xw42h560WgzxGnEAmQSZ_yMNA9QjDF3rqMgKXwBBTDC3rTrJ9w9vhIlTVzv9Nud7w9ksKyomYwv/s320/goebbels-quote-propaganda.jpg" width="303" /></a></div>So, since FB had become what it feels like now. Just political sides with no chance for reconciliation, for real relationships... I said before I left, <i>I was losing more than I was gaining</i> by staying. I resisted the urge to leave for a long time because I thought I was a reasonable person. I thought I could see both sides. I hoped to meet people where they were, and engage them in conversation. Not necessarily to change their mind, but to explain mine so they knew I wasn't being willfully stupid that people did in fact sometimes have differing opinions. But I was kidding myself. That wasn't what was happening. Rhetoric matters more now.<br />
<br />So, I left. I was, and am, tired of engaging in that sort of stuff. I'm tired of losing people I care about. Yesterday was a hard one for me. You know how you always feel like you've got certain people in your corner who will at least listen to you? It's sort of like walking down stairs holding a box and you can't tell but you think there's another step and there isn't and your leg jams up into your hip and shakes your whole body? Yeah. That, but in my heart.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbj1Z6hFD_zldXs57A0gvFJevap0he5yiIW210lsiUUVDQsxGbPOT7Oo1pOZmuVdzd2Mz_AGw5SSFiPmS-SRvkcJk9ZYm_fDJcMdpyxyH876v1oRCkvbQv-0CPwM-HH0CoXZu/s1600/03_05_2020_12_47_57_6660000.gif" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="959" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbj1Z6hFD_zldXs57A0gvFJevap0he5yiIW210lsiUUVDQsxGbPOT7Oo1pOZmuVdzd2Mz_AGw5SSFiPmS-SRvkcJk9ZYm_fDJcMdpyxyH876v1oRCkvbQv-0CPwM-HH0CoXZu/s200/03_05_2020_12_47_57_6660000.gif" width="200" /></a></div>So, the only thing I'm keeping is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/simplerich23/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. It's pictures. Oh, I should be upfront about this. If I express an opinion on my Instagram and you disagree there I'll block you. I'm not on Instagram for debate or conversation. I'm not interested in winning hearts and minds. I'm sharing things I like and that I enjoy. If you don't enjoy them or like them then don't follow me. If you disagree go make your own post. If you think I'm being naive or stupid go say so one your own space but stay off mine.<br />
<br />Comments are turned off for this post. I don't normally do that but in this case, like in the one that caused me to leave Facebook. I'm giving my opinion and, frankly, I don't need yours to inform mine. Yes, that sounds adversarial. I don't mean it that way I simply mean to say I'm allowed to have an opinion. This is what it is. I love the people involved. I feel like a part of me that I could always depend on and rely on to be there is built on sand now. Maybe that's a normal part of growing up. Maybe as we become adults, and at fifty plus I've been adult-aged for a while, maybe we find that we have to rely on new things as we get older. That doesn't mean I can't mourn the loss of what I'd felt was a bedrocklike foundation I'd built my life on... It never occurred to me that I would say "I wish fewer people died at the hands of the police" and my mom would say, "some of them are asking for it."<br /><br />Blaming the victim hits me hard. Maybe harder than it should. But here we are.<br />
<br />Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999999242.4038364 -94.32937729999999 42.5911024 -94.0066543tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-26493554088683423982020-06-01T01:41:00.001-05:002020-06-01T01:47:42.918-05:00Race in 2020 - RIP George Floyd<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFucnhRCHOcgFuJbb5FhtAsqJD0pWeZHrVbtJDvqxVSZ78tqkWVDDBRmOZicR3qFkGXkpM2VM8J5i8HXwQ-epF1jVJ-cKtaBThxAs8UcO4Q2jn8X8BzfjHhpZQvzCfo9a1bUF/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFucnhRCHOcgFuJbb5FhtAsqJD0pWeZHrVbtJDvqxVSZ78tqkWVDDBRmOZicR3qFkGXkpM2VM8J5i8HXwQ-epF1jVJ-cKtaBThxAs8UcO4Q2jn8X8BzfjHhpZQvzCfo9a1bUF/s320/IMG_0114.JPG" /></a></div>The country is on fire right now and...<br /><br /></div><div>We need to be part of something that happens, something that changes... there's something sick out there. There's something broken. There's something WRONG.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's... I'm trying to figure out how to say it while I'm writing it instead of planning this out like I usually do. I'm sorry. (Also: Warning... will contain adult language and a link to a video that is definitely difficult to watch)</div><div><br /></div><div>I grew up in the South. For my first few years of school, I was a minority, little toe-headed white boy. My best friend was Irna. She was black (I imagine she still is actually... it's not something that goes away). We moved to Germany and I went to High School on an army base there. The army is more racially diverse than a lot of America is, and less important than your color is your rank. Yeah, I know, it's elitist. But, hey, the Officer's Club had better video games. My best friend through high school was biracial, in Germany that definitely counted as black. It was pretty white over there then. I haven't been back for a while so I don't know what it's like now. Back in the thirties and forties they sort of got rid of the ones who didn't fit their interior decorating palette...</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISpYY5OAO_tIgRbugyxbr6kXsMQI7XW897YXlxWOs3S-0453-fnMflYwF99m9x-MR1yfEJZfvypzPepUg4xpykMet1B6k5_5OZWinttSbkHTg7GZfccqSwIyPPIDqVd-aYTVi/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2088" data-original-width="2888" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISpYY5OAO_tIgRbugyxbr6kXsMQI7XW897YXlxWOs3S-0453-fnMflYwF99m9x-MR1yfEJZfvypzPepUg4xpykMet1B6k5_5OZWinttSbkHTg7GZfccqSwIyPPIDqVd-aYTVi/s320/me2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I went back to Alabama to go to college and Mom remembers me saying early in going back an observation about the cafeteria at the university. I was disappointed to note that there were clusters of colors. There wasn't a lot of mixing going on. That was in 1986. Everybody was self-segregating into black and white tables.</div><div><br /></div><div>I got to be Supervisor down in Memphis years later, and I had no white employees for years. None, every employee I had was black. For about four hours I had a white lady working for me, but she went to lunch and never came back.</div><div><br /></div><div>Something I've learned in all that time is that there are two worlds out there. There are two Americas. There's the one I live in where I and another white male middle-aged friend of mine can trespass, park a truck on someone's business property at night and watch fireworks and not get the cops called on us... and then there's the one where I could be on the news being killed because of what I look like.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's not political. It's not hippie leftist thinking. It's a fact. And it's hard to watch. It's hard to see over and over again. And it doesn't have to be that way. It's a choice. It's a choice for those people who are doing the killing.</div><div><br /></div><div>I see people saying, "BLUE LIVES MATTER!" during the conversation and I close my eyes and I close my mouth because there are no blue lives. Blue is a job. If you take off your blue shirt and go to the mall you're not blue anymore. You can live your life without being blue if you want to. You can't take off black. It's there. And it is such a different experience from being white.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes. It's better than it was. But that doesn't mean it's good. Better doesn't mean right. If you haven't eaten in 20 days and someone gives you a teaspoon of oatmeal a day, that's better... but it's not good. It's not enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just because things are better doesn't mean it's good enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>I KNOW you would never do something like this. If you would, you wouldn't be reading my blog. But there's more to it than that. I'm not telling myself "Well, I'd never do that so let's talk about the riots."</div><div><br /></div><div>Fuck the riots. I could give two shits about the riots in this conversation. That's exactly what keeps happening. The trigger gets drowned out by the noise of what follows and we don't address the trigger. We address the noise.</div><div><br /></div><div>What else can I do? What else can WE do, to help things continue to get better? Just waiting for the old racists who were raised to think "negro" was the good word so let's all just use that one and they can't complain to die isn't working. Our health care is getting too good. They're living too long. We can't wait for all the racists to die for things to get better. Because they're like gay people. Nobody knows why they keep happening but dammit! Every time I turn around there's another homo or racist sitting on the corner with some cause or another. What the hell man? Gimme a break. I just want to go to work, go to a restaurant once in a while, and go home and watch Survivor with my gay husband. Is that too much to ask? (He's the gay one, not me! Straight as hell! LoL)</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing is, that's all the people who keep getting killed want. Maybe they want Skittles. Maybe they want help when their car breaks down. Maybe they want to go for a walk. Maybe they want to go for a jog. What they don't want is to live in fear of the police. They don't want to teach their kids to be afraid of the police. They don't want to be afraid they're going to be shot if they have a tail light out that they haven't fixed yet.<br /><br />They don't want to <a href="https://twitter.com/MonaHannaA/status/1266942493259595776" target="_blank">lay on the ground while a police dog chews on them</a>, LITERALLY CHEWS on them so afraid if they move at all WHILE THE DOG CHEWS THEM that they'll be shot. What world is it that we, you and I, have allowed to exist that they overcome literally every instinct to NOT BE EATEN because their fear of the police is worse than their fear of the dog that is literally chewing on them right then? How have you allowed that to happen? How have I? How have we? Because that's the reality for a black person in today's America.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what can we do to fix it? Literally, anybody who isn't trying to help in this situation, anybody who says, "Well, they just need to learn patience. Change takes time..." they're part of the problem.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtmCmFToq0q-Z6zpVJZrx9Yzdze7sdCqFcBmYA6km2O9iiAw-l9bnM_jvqtlBYhw7h_nU7IFUwPYgGXOmVLehfltfhyT1iO5I7asch0IR2_uZS2m7WZAgKyB47oo0HdRQ0Jdk/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtmCmFToq0q-Z6zpVJZrx9Yzdze7sdCqFcBmYA6km2O9iiAw-l9bnM_jvqtlBYhw7h_nU7IFUwPYgGXOmVLehfltfhyT1iO5I7asch0IR2_uZS2m7WZAgKyB47oo0HdRQ0Jdk/s320/20171019_121657.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://simplerich.blogspot.com/2017/10/i-said-yes.html" target="_blank">If two poufs can get married</a> when that was UNIMAGINABLE 30 years ago, then a black man should be able to interact with a law enforcement officer without being afraid he's going to die.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all I want. I want our police officers to be the good guys for ALL of us. Not just for my Aryan ass. ALL of us. Including my friends who have more melanin and less skin cancer than me and my family.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you disagree with anything I've said, please unfollow me. I'm really distressed by all of this, more than I should be for as often as it happens. I should be numb to it by now but I'm not getting desensitized to it for some reason. I guess it's because I think it's important. I think it matters and I can't stop thinking about it.</div>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.5136902 -94.192340000000016-2.215899837053577 125.18266 87.243280237053568 46.432659999999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-55299150746539431562020-05-31T21:02:00.000-05:002020-05-31T21:02:45.496-05:00Mask reviews (It's about face masks so... do with that info what you will)Masks... They're contentious, and weirdly, to me, a political hot-button that I'm not interested in engaging with you in whether they're necessary or helpful or not. If you don't like masks. Fine. Why are you here? The title was pretty clear on what this was about. There's a whole Internet out there.<br />
<br />
If you DO like the idea of a mask and reducing the transmission of contagious airborne diseases, well maybe this info will be helpful.<br />
<br />
I ordered cloth face masks from three different companies to see which I liked better. I'll name them here, picture the mask I got from them, the price, and how long it took me to get it along with my opinion about the masks themselves as far as comfort, durability, and wearability. Again, not engaging on the subject of disease control further than to tell you about the materials used and how many layers there were.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKo6qD_z_wYzj7nfWG_YiV3G9giFXqiBbHc_dSIGWUE-mjI4IkJm48_MUBxY0VjiyZyOK1b0dEqw-JUz1x9CkQuLVaZBPTgXz53b4jZ-HbZVAZpRLPo86so4DQ_PNZ_vL85lK5/s1600/IMG_0025-COLLAGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1201" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKo6qD_z_wYzj7nfWG_YiV3G9giFXqiBbHc_dSIGWUE-mjI4IkJm48_MUBxY0VjiyZyOK1b0dEqw-JUz1x9CkQuLVaZBPTgXz53b4jZ-HbZVAZpRLPo86so4DQ_PNZ_vL85lK5/s320/IMG_0025-COLLAGE.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<h3>
My first masks I ordered were from <a href="https://ghostcircusapparel.com/" target="_blank">GhostCircus Apparel</a>.</h3>
<br />
I ordered two of them, a black one and a white one. Right out of the gate I'm going to say they were comfortable the minute I put them on. The material breathed well and my face didn't get too hot. I work in a factory and it's warm in there. They DO fog up my glasses though. You can see they're big enough to cover my mouth and nose. I can chew gum while wearing them without pulling the mask down until my nose pokes out over the top. The cloth straps were comfortable and sized right for my head/face. I could wear them all night without my ears hurting or being pulled forward do I looked like Yoda. These are dual-layered masks with a cotton blend for inside and outside and they wash well and hang dry quickly. I wash them after work and they're dry the next day when I put them on again. (<i><b>UPDATE</b>: I see from their site they now have masks with wires in them</i>.)<br />
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<br />
<ul>
<li>I ordered these May 12th and received them May 18th. 6 days, under a week. I can live with that. Amazon Prime isn't shipping that fast for me most of the time lately.</li>
<li>Total cost of order plus shipping was $37.31 which comes to $18.65/mask.</li>
</ul>
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<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxoLR-lWF2iGc_uyRkuRxC7nPLuIIb1Hb6C4pCObktkClty9gt_cWTIMLuzv8R1-CL6GmAZL8Ib6tOOZxHudF1Llz_EUzdCZCKmg35mFNJdI5OcK3YIccpKyZ17ecauQZzIT2a/s1600/IMG_0054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxoLR-lWF2iGc_uyRkuRxC7nPLuIIb1Hb6C4pCObktkClty9gt_cWTIMLuzv8R1-CL6GmAZL8Ib6tOOZxHudF1Llz_EUzdCZCKmg35mFNJdI5OcK3YIccpKyZ17ecauQZzIT2a/s320/IMG_0054.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<h3>
The second company I got masks from was <a href="http://electricstyles.com/" target="_blank">Electric Styles</a>. </h3>
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These had a metal piece that was helpful for keeping my glasses from fogging up. When I would breathe the air would go past my ears through the sides rather than up my face into my glasses. This came with a pocket inside as well for a disposable charcoal filter that's good for 8 hours. My shifts are 12 hours so I didn't use them. These were also double layered masks, I guess triple where the filter pocket is. The material on the outside layer is sort of shiny synthetic. Someone at work said it looked like I was wearing panties on my face. This was the hottest of the three masks because the material definitely didn't breathe as well and my face was overly warm and sweaty all night. But my glasses didn't fog up. I REALLY liked that part. The nose piece thing was applied with a sticky glue-like backing on the metal and it came with three of them. I don't think they'd survive a wash and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to keep buying them. The mask came with three metal strips that you could use, but once you do they're done, and three of the charcoal filters I didn't use. Breathing in the air seemed to come IN through the mask itself, but breathing out I could definitely feel it was going past my ears. Do with that information what you will. Since I work in a factory and they don't like us having jewelry or bits that can fall off us I only wore this one to work the one time. If it'd been hotter or more humid I'm not sure if the metal piece wouldn't have fallen off.<br />
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<br />
<ul>
<li>I ordered this May 18th and received them May 23rd. So, 5 days, quicker than the first company.</li>
<li>Total cost of order plus shipping was $22.95 which comes to $22.95/mask. </li>
</ul>
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<br />
<h3>
Lastly were <a href="https://www.daisymasks.com/" target="_blank">Daisy Masks</a>.</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghGsfrVLtuyEk6RULZXpSKRJ6x3hUZ4tgFGx6asQAlrRffo2qEgCkrPEvgS-8yGxExbG-dUYmFdDjyw4y8CKy2gpCfHsYVmqv6usi87u9Z-MUij35YkqbxUmewOQRxO4Uq2lIZ/s1600/4F112001-33C6-420B-B23E-EF69964C7328.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghGsfrVLtuyEk6RULZXpSKRJ6x3hUZ4tgFGx6asQAlrRffo2qEgCkrPEvgS-8yGxExbG-dUYmFdDjyw4y8CKy2gpCfHsYVmqv6usi87u9Z-MUij35YkqbxUmewOQRxO4Uq2lIZ/s320/4F112001-33C6-420B-B23E-EF69964C7328.jpg" width="320" /></a>These were triple-layered masks which was nice. I wondered how well I'd be able to breathe through them. As you can see from the pictures, they're smaller, significantly smaller than the other two mask companies, and that was telling right away. First they pulled my ears forward. You can see that somewhat in the picture on the left with the black and gray mask. These LOOKED the best. I mean, as far as variety goes? Daisy has a HUGE variety of looks and styles and I hoped to like these the most because they were also comparatively inexpensive. But they just didn't fit me. The straps were too small and when I tried to stretch them a little, seriously, JUST a little would've made them tolerable, the material made a tearing sound and was sort of frayed, unraveled in the middle. If you have a tiny head these are fine. But it's not just the ears. See where it hits my chin? When I would talk, or chew gum the mask would pull itself down my face until my nose was out. Because it was so short it rode low on my giant nose after just a few minutes of having it on and then I was just breathing around it and not through it at all. Sadly, this triple-layered mask, with cotton inside, against the face, layer, and attractive and huge variety of outside materials that weren't QUITE as shiny and "panties" looking as the one from Electric Styles, just didn't work for me in any way. I wouldn't wear it just to pop into a store and out again because it wasn't comfortable and wouldn't perform as a mask for me. It'd be uncomfortable ornamentation and that's too bad because they really do have some nice looks. I just wish they were more effective.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I ordered these May 18th and received them May 29th. 11 Days. Longest of the lot. </li>
<li>Total cost of order plus shipping was $24.99 which comes to $12.50/mask.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Summary:</h3>
<div>
I loved the masks from <a href="https://ghostcircusapparel.com/collections/face-masks/face-mask" target="_blank">GhostCircus Apparel</a> and have already ordered more. I have some coming with the wire for the nose. This mask is super comfortable. I wear it for my entire 12-hour shift in a factory setting without complaint and while they're warmer than no mask would be, they're not so hot as to bother me. They allow me to talk and/or chew gum without moving around on my face, and they clean easily to be worn again and again. If you're in the market for a reusable, comfortable, cloth face mask the ones from Ghost Circus are the best I've found. I'm not getting paid to say this or anything. I just genuinely love the masks, the cost is a little high, but these aren't disposable. I've worn mine a LOT and they're still in good shape even after daily washings. </div>
Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999999242.4038364 -94.32937729999999 42.5911024 -94.0066543tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-56868439473638317642020-02-22T20:38:00.000-06:002020-02-22T20:39:59.138-06:00Black History Month 2020 - Reflections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93X0r0TepADFwFBDGy2_t4q8wLjXwZqLDSzEj6If5SYHB8VbRv6anNdvj16mL5p0LMwPVNfY2xprjBqAiLU4DKO0KNzPX_G7zwsNWr_Ey0HxR0XUuZdWdBiAfO_I1HQxlT_oZ/s1600/20swearing_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93X0r0TepADFwFBDGy2_t4q8wLjXwZqLDSzEj6If5SYHB8VbRv6anNdvj16mL5p0LMwPVNfY2xprjBqAiLU4DKO0KNzPX_G7zwsNWr_Ey0HxR0XUuZdWdBiAfO_I1HQxlT_oZ/s320/20swearing_600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As 2020's Black History Month starts winding down it's getting to be time for me to make my annual Black History Month Post. Yeah, I do one a year.</div>
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I don't talk about who I vote for as a matter of policy. The only exception to that rule of mine is Barack Obama. I voted for him the first time and I say so unashamedly and without compunction.</div>
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Whether I agreed or disagreed with what I believed he may or may not do as President I felt then, and still feel, that it was an historic opportunity for us, as a country to do something bigger than the presidency.</div>
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There is more than one America. If you're white and male you will probably react very negatively to that statement. But if you're black you'll most likely nod your head in agreement with it. The American experience is different, completely different for a white person than it is for a black person. It just is. Periodt.</div>
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The Internet is a good example. You've probably heard of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/the-truth-about-black-twitter/390120/" target="_blank">Black Twitter</a>. It's there. It's Twitter just like you're used to, but it's pretty much black people only. <a href="https://blackamericaweb.com/" target="_blank">BlackAmericaWeb</a> is a website. It's out there. This isn't a fringe. It's a real thing and it exists because a portion of the country doesn't experience the country the same way I do. And the reason for that isn't that they're criminals or because they're poor or because they live in the wrong part of town. It's simply because they're black.</div>
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When Barack Obama as President looked like it might become a thing, a real, actual thing I was hugely excited. Not for myself. My life is fine. My America is fine (If you ignore the fact that a huge segment of the population feels like it isn't a part of it and doesn't have a seat at the table.). But if you're a young black kid growing up and looking for role models who look like you, who grew up like you... you've got sports figures and musicians.</div>
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This was an opportunity to put truth to what we all tell our kids, white, black, yellow, or brown, "You can be anything in America."</div>
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This generation is the first generation ever to see a black man as President, in a real position of power, at the table with heads of state and leaders of the world. It was too historic, too amazing of an opportunity to pass up. I *had* to vote for him.</div>
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I don't regret it. There are kids out there right now who grew up in a country where a black man could become President. No, it doesn't undo slavery in the past. No, it doesn't undo the day to day racism that still exists in overt and covert ways that they experience every time they leave their homes. But what it does do, what it did do, was provide some kind of light, some kind of hope, some kind of message, that yes, those things are bad, and they exist, and in spite of them you can become President. The road will be harder than it should have to be if you're not white, but that road is open now in a way that it wasn't open when I was growing up.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWGgnEBAxNLotXZ7dFRKCYvxaercElI50x6e5_C_IinA_VNjz0flz_uKAKLcOKhLVvsCjo7u_yBK7bcxUvymG4UPXIAKFEhkQlHBs1wYnueaR-A4VkEuoxpUlDzCflWnnd1bl/s1600/wallace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="415" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWGgnEBAxNLotXZ7dFRKCYvxaercElI50x6e5_C_IinA_VNjz0flz_uKAKLcOKhLVvsCjo7u_yBK7bcxUvymG4UPXIAKFEhkQlHBs1wYnueaR-A4VkEuoxpUlDzCflWnnd1bl/s320/wallace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The idea of a black man sitting in the White House when I was growing up was laughable. Race riots were still happening. It had only been legal for interracial marriage to exist for a year when I was born. In some places, schools were still segregated... But now, in my lifetime, and in the lifetime of everybody alive today and in the future, there has been a black man in the White House. And that can't be taken away from them.</div>
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The two Americas still exist, there's no question, but inroads are being made, bridges are being built, and Barack Obama was a big part of that and for that reason, I voted for him and I'm glad I did. The message to the black youth of the time and in the future was worth it to me then and continues to be..</div>
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Now, I know a lot of you will disagree with his politics and that's fine with me. Knock yourselves out... but do it somewhere else. Not in this thread. I wasn't talking about his politics and am not going to. I'm talking about the man that did a world of good and made a real, honest, tangible difference to a whole country of people you don't know much of anything about who live near you and work with you every day.</div>
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So, Happy Black History month. And don't shit all over my blog with politics.Just block me or unfollow me instead if you can't contain your hatred for the man's politics.</div>
Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-71085472595333657892020-02-07T19:22:00.002-06:002020-02-07T19:22:52.299-06:00Ugly -- it isn't a bad thing...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wrote someone a letter in which I referred to myself as ugly and they called tonight to assure me that I wasn't and I shouldn't feel bad about myself.<br />
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I don't know if I ever got my feelings about it across because I was taken aback by the call. I hadn't meant it in a bad way.<br />
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Beauty is frequently something people talk about, a symmetrical face, slightly larger than average eyes, smooth features, nothing TOO big or TOO small, proportional to itself and each other, a lack of blemishes or wrinkles, but that last one's not an absolute. We, as a society have an opinion on what beauty is.<br />
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Beauty is often talked about and studied, and I'll say I appreciate beauty in a person and beautiful things as well, but often things and people that are considered beautiful lack what I would call character. They're a bit bland. It's not that they're TOO pretty... although, some people are... it's that they're simply beautiful and there's nothing that memorable about beauty.<br />
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My nose is too big, too long, too broad. It doesn't go straight, it's a bit off-center. I have thought wrinkles, permanently over my nose that give me something of a scowling appearance. My lips are to thin. My chin too wide. My eyes, when I smile practically vanish. My forehead doesn't know when to stop and I have spots. I'm NOT beautiful. Enough is wrong that I'd say it's ugly. I'm no Quasimodo, but I don't have any delusions about how I look objectively.<br />
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That being said I don't think that's an insult. I don't think it's a bad thing. People say, "Oh, you can't say someone is gay because it's an insult..." Well, only if you think being gay is bad which says something, doesn't it? Calling someone who is fat, fat isn't insulting. Calling someone who is ugly, ugly isn't an insult. (I wouldn't do any of those things. It's rude.)<br />
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I don't think how ugly a person is exactly related to how attractive they are. That's the confusion. The assumption that an ugly person can't be attractive is common and wrong. I know people find me attractive. I know I find people who aren't by any definition of the word "beautiful" very attractive.<br />
There's a lot involved in how someone looks. Me? I look different in a photograph than I do in real life when I'm talking to someone. The photo shows all the ugly fixed on paper, or on a screen, and that's fine. It's objectively true and it's definitely there.<br />
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What a photo doesn't show is me leaning forward to hear something someone is saying when I'm interested in them or what they're saying. It doesn't show me laughing. It doesn't show how my whole body moves when I laugh. It doesn't show any of the stuff that is actually me. My personality is animated. It's broad gestures and lots of laughing. That's who I am. That's what people find attractive. My face? Not so much. A dating app where all I had to show someone before they decided to swipe left or right? I'd be doomed. But, put me in a room of people and generally, I'll do okay. They don't notice how I look, and later, when they saw a picture of me at the event, they'll inevitably say, "Oh, that's not a very good picture of you is it?"<br />
<br />Well, sadly, it is... that's how I look, but it's not what people tend to remember about me. And, honestly, I'm okay with it.Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999997842.4038364 -94.329377299999976 42.5911024 -94.00665429999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-16500490301409699192019-08-17T17:19:00.001-05:002019-08-17T17:19:34.398-05:00Food Review: Chirps ChipsA <a href="https://twitter.com/qoftu">friend of mine</a> found <a href="https://eatchirps.com/">Chirps</a> - chips made with cricket flour and I, of course, had to try them. I'd tried cricket flour already on fried chicken and hadn't liked that very much... too much cricket flour compared the other flour I'd mixed it with. The cricket taste was too strong in the flour so I thought I'd try the chips.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />I ordered a <a href="https://amzn.to/2HcrQp0">variety pack from Amazon</a> (that's an affiliate link where if you buy something following it then I get a little change in my pocket). It came with a bag of the sriracha flavored chips and two bags of cheddar cheese ones. I ate the cheese ones first.<br /><br />I was surprised at the number of carbs in the chips. A single bag was 70 net carbs (That's 80g of carbs less 10g of fiber.) and somehow I thought it would be lower... especially after tasting them.<br /><br />The cheese ones aren't fantastic. There's not a lot of cheese flavor, or salt... it doesn't taste like the cricket flour did. It tastes more like a chip made from some exotic grain than corn... like chia or spelt or buckwheat or something... without the sweet overtones, those would have.<br /><br />It's not bad really, just sort of bland and dry. The cheese flavor, like I said, is more an aromatic flavor than an actual taste. If you were expecting something like the cheesy goodness of Ruffles you'd be let down. If you expected the cheesy goodness of say... oatmeal without the water or sugar or milk or butter or any processing at all... they're about that cheesy. I can't recommend them. They're not bad so much as they're nothing.<br /><br />I *want* to like crickets in food. I really do. I look forward to the time when we have a protein source that's eco-friendly and also delicious. If we're going to go to space on any sort of long-distance trips we're going to need one. Crickets would be good for that... but going to Mars on a diet of crickets right now would be a bad tasting proposition. I'd still do it, but I would doubtless lose weight for reasons other than lower gravity.<br /><br />I'll try the sriracha ones later tonight while watching <a href="https://www.syfy.com/tags/zombie-tidal-wave">Zombie Tidal Wave on SyFy</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-20817943514226356872019-05-17T00:01:00.000-05:002019-05-17T00:01:23.556-05:00Don't quit<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I'm a big <a href="https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/?ttag=tv;survivor" target="_blank">Survivor</a> fan. I like the idea of 40 days off work, on an island, no cell phone, no Internet, just me, a beach, and a bunch of people who want to kill me. Sounds so relaxing, doesn't it?</div>
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But the thing is, doesn't matter if you saw this season or not, I'm behind a day because of work. Eric, when asked what kept him going when he could quit, said it was his kids. How could he tell his kids they can't quit if he quit. He had to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.</div>
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Not <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">quitting is a big deal to me. I'm not sure when it became a thing, but there have been times, not that long ago, some a while back, and some chronic over years, where the only thing to do was keep going and keep working towards a goal. Even if there was very little hope of success. Sometimes it's not about hope. Sometimes it's about putting in the work and not stopping.</span></div>
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Not all the time... sometimes the odds are terrifically stacked against you and it seems like everybody wants you to fail and the task is too hard. Without getting too personal/specific, sometimes it seems all there is is work, a mountain of NO to climb, and a world aligned against you and all that's left is standing on the beach as the tide comes in and screaming into the teeth of the storm but not moving, not backing down and not giving up.</div>
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Work right now is a trial. The press isn't working right. I don't know why. I was FINALLY working fine... and then we changed shells and now it's dead. It's fixable. I just have to find that thing, that one thing that isn't right and make it right. It's exhausting. It's tiring. It's frustrating.</div>
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But, Eric's speech, this all started with a Survivor guy, remember lol, about not being able to quit because that wasn't the lesson he wanted to teach. That's a real thing and it resonated with me and it wasn't about being able to do it... it wasn't about winning or beating anything or succeeding it is/was about never giving up. You lose all the battles you don't fight, but at least you fought.</div>
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Last week at work someone complimented me. They saw me working on the press again. I saw them looking at me shaking their head and I smiled and waved, I'm a friendly S.O.B., and he came over and he said, "You have a lot of try in you buddy. A lotta try."</div>
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That's a big compliment to me. I've never heard that expression before. I liked it applied to me. I'm glad someone noticed.</div>
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Don't give up. Don't quit.</div>
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Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-22004629380497951532018-04-22T18:11:00.000-05:002018-04-22T18:28:22.213-05:00Des Moines Art Center... Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I went to the <a href="https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/" target="_blank">Des Moines Art Center</a> on my vacation. I had high hopes for it. I’d been once before and stumbled onto a traveling exhibition of a photographer whose work I was familiar with and that I liked quite a bit. This time I was not so lucky, however. I did take pictures of the classical stuff I liked, the two kids on the divan, I wish you could see the detail, that’s part of what I like on that one. The detail in the hands is so fine and well done and then the edges of the clothes, and the divan, they just all sort of get ragged and haphazard and unrealistic. The focus was on the people and they’re well painted and defined, but their clothes, the inanimate objects in the pictures are more ideas hinted at that truly well depicted. I like that. It’s cool. It wouldn't<br />
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have occurred to me to DO it, but on seeing it, I liked it. Also, the one on the left looks like a young Benedict Cumberbatch to me.<br />
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There’s a painting of a French girl in a blue dress at a table, drinking tea perhaps. Click it to enlarge so you can see her face. It’s beautiful to me. The artist and I don’t remember who it was, beautifully captured her face and I imagine anyone looking at it would bring their own interpretation of what that face is showing. Is she tired from a long night up with a kid? Was she just crying at the loss of a lover? Has she just gotten done working and is having a cuppa before she has to get back to it? What’s her face say? It says all those things and it’s where the interpretation of art being a personal matter is important. They’re all right answers because they’re all objectively possible answers. I love that. It’s a painting I suspect I would see differently every time I looked at it. Well done stranger.<br />
<i>I looked it up and it's called<b> At the table (French girl)</b> and is by Louis Ritman and is from 1918. Now you know.</i><b></b><br />
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I’ve also included the Picasso and the Matisse. The Matisse is the cartoon looking one in bold primary colors of a person facing right. It doesn’t look well painted and makes me feel nothing. It and the Picasso are included because they’re famous, not because I consider them good. Oh, I’m sure the art world is correct in that they ARE good, but I don’t like either of them. They leave me feeling as hollow inside when I look at them, as Chinese food leaves me hungry half an hour later. This is a common problem with me and "great" art. I don't understand it. A painting doesn't have to be super real for me, that's what photographs are for. But, for me to appreciate it as more than just "meh" it has to be something or look like something that took skill and not something that looks like something I could have done myself. <i>"Oh, Rich, but you didn't and that's the difference!</i>" Yes, well. The reason for that is if/when I have done I wouldn't show anyone. I certainly wouldn't try and sell anything I did that looked like the Matisse on the right. Seriously, look at the sausage fingers there. No. That's not something I understand. My short-coming I'm sure, but not for me.<br />
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Which brings me to Picasso. It's obviously a Picasso. I recognized it as soon as I entered the room. I'm sure you do too. For one thing I wasn't aware we had a Picasso in the permanent collection at the <a href="https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/" target="_blank">Des Moines Art Center</a> and that's actually pretty cool. That being said...<br />
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</a>Just because I recognized it, and recognize his work doesn't mean I'm able to appreciate it however. Yes, I know this is his. I know he did it on purpose. I don't know why though. I'll just leave it here rather than continue showing my ignorance. This isn't meant to be a screed against non-realism.<br />
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Sculpture is a cool one for me. The terminal one with the two white figures standing at what is made out to be an airport terminal reminds me of my travel when I used to work and fly a LOT. There were always people who looked like this. They hated the travel and were beaten up by it. I loved the travel. I loved airports and the bustle and the feeling of expectation. Traveling to me is like opening a Christmas present. The time it takes to get there is the time it takes to unwrap the package. It’s hours of as of yet unrealized expectation and anticipation. I love to travel. I like GOING to a place. I like the act of movement and the motion of it.<br />
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I’d considered a train vacation like a land cruise where I got on the train and went out three days, turned around and came back. It would have been all motion, all travel, all me moving through time and space and no being stationary or in one place and it would have been fantastic... except the train schedule was such that I’d mostly be doing it all at night. For most people travel is like it is for the two people in the art installation and it’s a drudgery, a terrible pause between being where you wanted to be but had to leave, and being where you want to go but aren’t there yet. It’s like a commercial break full of bad jingles. I don’t feel about travel that way, but lots of people do. So, for them, a train ride that was 27 hours of night out of the 36 hours of the trip would be fantastic, They could sleep it all away. For me? It was enough to cancel the trip. I don't want to miss the movement. That’s the whole point.<br />
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The picture of the man being thrown from the horse, the Pegasus, I took that picture because it reminds me of the myth/legend of Icarus. It’s one of my favorites. You know it. He and his father, Daedalus, were trapped by a king on an island in Greece and to escape Daedalus created them both wings made of feathers and wax but when they sprang from the window to fly away over the sea, Icarus, caught up in the excitement of the flight, of the movement, of the travelling, flew too high, too close to the sun, and his wings melted and he crashed into the Aegean Sea and drowned. I love that story. Sure, he died, but look at the fun he had before he did. I know the lesson isn’t James Dean’s famous quote, “live hard, die young, leave a beautiful corpse” but that was sort of the takeaway. Now, I’m far too cautious for that. I’m a planner and I play it safe a lot. I’m really one of the most boring people you’ll probably ever meet. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the daring in others. It’s something I wish I were better at doing but it’s not how I’m wired. (That might not actually be a James Dean quote by the way. I just feel like it is.)<br />
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I've saved it for last because it was the reason I was disappointed. The museum was having an exhibit called, I think Wanderlust. There's a theme going through the art world right now of garbage. Literal garbage. Trash. This exhibit was literally trash. Oh, here's a field? Let's gather up all the garbage in it, wrap it in a twine and set it in the middle of the floor. Oh. So powerful. So poignant. Such garbage. I'm sorry it's garbage. I don't need to know the artists story to know it's garbage. I don't need to know what the point is they're trying to make. It's garbage. You picked up trash and dropped it on the floor. A thousand prisoners do it every day alongside roads in every state in the country. They pick up trash and they move it somewhere else. You call it art. They call it community service. In both cases it's trash being moved around and calling it art is pretentious and annoying. You're not fooling anyone. This trash I DO understand. It's not a lack of understanding that is my problem. I understand perfectly well and I don't like it. I don't like what it is. I don't like that it's being foisted off on us as art. I don't like that museums are wasting my time and their space with it. It's garbage and if I'd had to pay to see it I would have left without seeing anything. I will never pay to see trash. I throw it out all the time and am well rid of it.<br />
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/LSTqFDcSYz6uKHhM8" target="_blank">Trash as art was done in 2017 at Reiman Gardens</a>. It was well presented and some work and creativity went into it. Did I like it? Not as art, no. But I respected the time and effort that went into doing it. I enjoyed looking at it. I enjoyed the discovery of seeing it and watching the swordfish resolve itself into the detritus of life as I got closer. That I liked. I DO think the whole "trash as art" thing is overdone though. It's just lazy at this point.<br />
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Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com04700 Grand Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312, USA41.5838826 -93.681518617.772312600000003 -134.9901126 65.3954526 -52.372924600000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-36314025286259418352018-02-03T14:37:00.002-06:002018-02-03T14:37:35.479-06:00Writing again...<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve been writing lately. I took a break while I have something at the editor. That’s my excuse to play a ridiculous amount of Fallout 4. Don’t judge me! I’m about to settle in and write some more but I noticed something in a book I’d read recently and I tried it. I haven’t heard back from the editor yet if I overplayed my hand at it or not and maybe it’s subtle enough. It was subtle when I encountered it and I only noticed it because I was looking for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a scene there are things that set the mood, the tone, that have nothing to do with the characters and this author I read used the sun and lighting to set the mood. The sun could be BEATING down on them, dancing on the waters, warming their shoulders, setting softly on the horizon. What the sun was doing, every time it was mentioned, was the tone of the scene. The sun set the stage and the mindset for what was going to happen next.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, for me to have noticed it I think it may have been used maybe one time too often, or too close to a previous time and I did something similar but used it sparingly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a cool writing device I’d never considered before. Most scenes have lighting, and describing the lighting in a way that sets the mood seems like an obvious idea. It wasn’t one that had occurred to me before now though. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet another tool in the writer’s tool box.</span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999997842.4038364 -94.329377299999976 42.5911024 -94.00665429999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-41747080765302852062018-01-04T06:43:00.000-06:002018-01-04T06:43:06.025-06:00I joined the US Navy (well, thirty years ago)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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January 4, 1988 I boarded a bus to the Naval Training Center in Orlando Florida. It's gone now, a park.<br />
While there, towards the end of the first week I began to pray for someone in my company to die. He sounded like he was going to. He had a dry, hacking cough that was so loud and... abrupt, that the fire bell over the door would resonate and continue to ring after he had a coughing fit. It served to bridge the slight pauses between his coughing fits that lasted all night long. I'm sure he was miserable because I was. He didn't die. Finally I got to sleep. I'm not sure if his cough stopped or if I just finally collapsed after nights of not sleeping because of his noise. I know it happened multiple nights, many, many, many nights and I hated him for it well after it stopped because I didn't trust it to stay gone.<br />
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After completing basic training I stayed there in Orlando but moved over to the Naval Training Center, just across the base, where I attended Nuclear Field "A" School as a Machinist Mate. When I finished that I changed buildings to go to Nuclear Power School and did really well in that. That I loved.<br />
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FINALLY the reason I'd joined. Science. Nuke stuff. I loved it. I didn't ace it, but I was in the top of the class. As our class dwindled, the attrition rate was huge on the "dark side." It was called the "dark side" because the classes were hard enough that you never saw the light of day because you were studying so much you never got outside. Well, sort of.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKiLuKf4I2xcWJUZxwvGmmK8hnUtzuxzp2KWEIQLgJJFaJA8pS60a45KNSDtlmoxrEnem1PSbGJLE6lCPNp5TcQvpX7Hf-qKoZsmNFsv1u8JkdQiydld75zpI55nKCWdf0ZDv/s1600/Screenshot+2018-01-03+at+4.28.37+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="378" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKiLuKf4I2xcWJUZxwvGmmK8hnUtzuxzp2KWEIQLgJJFaJA8pS60a45KNSDtlmoxrEnem1PSbGJLE6lCPNp5TcQvpX7Hf-qKoZsmNFsv1u8JkdQiydld75zpI55nKCWdf0ZDv/s200/Screenshot+2018-01-03+at+4.28.37+AM.png" width="200" /></a>Remember the cougher from the first paragraph? He was also in school, but he was still in "A" School for "Electronics Tech" which went longer, and then he was in Power School, but I was still ahead of him. He had plenty of free time and I was doing well enough, even on the dark side, that we hung out a lot. Went to a lot of movies.<br />
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I listened to Def Lepard's Hysteria and Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction on repeat just about non-stop for most of that time. Those are still two of my favorite albums ever. Not just because they're great albums, but because of where I was geographically, and in my life at the time. It was fun and warm, and we were in Orlando, Florida. You know what there is to do in Central Florida when you're young and have no bills? Everything. That's what there is to do.<br />
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I bought a car, a white Renault Encore that was, when I looked at the owner's manual, originally owned by a lady from a place called Ogden, Iowa. When I bought it I didn't know I'd soon be moving to a town about 45 miles from there.<br />
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So, long story short, too late. That guy with the cough? We wound up getting married last year so we don't introduce each other as "old Navy buddies" quite as often as we did for decades.<br />
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So, happy anniversary of joining the world's greatest navy, and I'm glad he didn't die from pneumonia... I guess.<br />
<br />Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-89119216739499037822018-01-01T14:47:00.000-06:002018-01-01T14:47:28.503-06:00For the sake of your readers get an editorIt's the time of year when book giveaways are at an all time high, and for that I'm very appreciative. I enjoy reading a lot. I've been reading for ages. It's probably my oldest hobby.<br />
<br />
I <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009LBNY1Q" target="_blank">wrote a book</a>. It's not easy. I have read many books through the years and thought, "I could do better than that!" Having written one I know now that it's not as easy as it seems. It's just just hurling words at a page to see what sticks, and just because a person can TELL a story doesn't mean they can write one. There's a difference.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Get an editor.</li>
<li>Get yourself an editor.</li>
<li>Get an editor for your book.</li>
<li>Make sure your book has an editor.</li>
<li>Get your book edited by an editor.</li>
<li>Hire an editor and listen to their advice. Stephen King said the editor is God. </li>
</ul>
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I'm trying to think of how I can say this so it'll stick. It's hugely important. You know, I'd try two if I'm honest. If you only get one, make sure you've got male and female beta readers and listen especially close to the opposite gender and ask them, directly, for feedback on how that gender is handled.<br />
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The last three free books I started, yes, started, but didn't necessarily finish, could have ALL been better with editors, possibly even really really good. They had good ideas in them. What they didn't have, was an editor. I won't list the names of the books or the authors. I didn't review any of them because I know starting out is hard. They're new authors. They need feedback more than being publicly pilloried. So, I sent feedback. But, with an editor I doubt they'd have made the mistakes they made. I'm not quoting, I'm paraphrasing. I don't want to have to credit them. You'll think I'm exaggerating in my paraphrasing, but I'm absolutely not.<br />
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1) Be careful what you shine a light on. When you want to show what a modern, great, open-minded person your protagonist is be careful about it. "<b>She was supremely confident, but she managed it without losing her femininity,</b>" sort of implies that mostly when a woman is competent she's not feminine. Not your goal I'm sure. Kinda makes you look like an ass. "<b>I didn't love her. I RESPECTED HER!</b>" Um, okay. Good for you. That pretty rare for you then? Even more rare than love? Damn. That sucks. Hopefully an editor, or maybe even a beta reader, would've noticed that. Oh, a note on beta readers. <i>Friends and family are the easiest to get, but they're the kindest and you don't need kind. You need honest</i>. Find a stranger who doesn't "know what you mean" or "know he doesn't it mean it like that." If it's not in the book it's not there. Your intentions, your attitudes, your lofty ideals, if they're not on the page I can't see them. I can't know you and I don't know them. Maybe you're a 21st century man with modern attitudes, but if you don't express them plainly in the book you can really screw this up. Get some people who don't know you to read your stuff because, hopefully, at some point, people who don't know you will read your stuff. That's the idea isn't it?<br />
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2) The protagonist, a man ,is broken and becomes a homeless drunk, when his girlfriend dies. In the same book his female partner dies and it motivates him to do stuff. There were two women in the book, two... there's not even a waitress in it to bring him coffee, and both died to move the man along a story line. That's not what femme fatale means. In fact, that's more like fatale femme. Women and kids don't exist just to kill them to move the plot. If that's all your using them for... get a dog. It worked for John Wick.<br />
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3) An editor will help you not use the wrong words, a man on a buoy in the ocean doesn't <i>scan the parameter</i>. He looks around. There's not even a perimeter there unless there's some defined border, and that'd be the horizon in this case. I know, you want to sound militaristic and give it a military vibe, and you want to sound more clever than saying "he looked around" but you know what? Sometimes simple is best. Especially when it's right. Especially when the word you used instead is wrong in meaning and spelling.<br />
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All three of these books had good ideas in them. All three had characters in them I either liked or wanted to like. Those are two of the three boxes I need ticked to keep reading an author. The third though, is "well written." I don't mean Great Gatsby level well. I'm pretty forgiving, especially of new authors, like I said, I am one. But I'm not forgiving of people being lazy. And, not hiring an editor is lazy. Editors don't have to be ridiculously expensive. Some are, and some are better than others, but if you can afford a professionally done book cover you can afford an editor. You really can't afford not to have one. Those three books by three different authors? I read some of their free book. I won't read more. I certainly won't pay for their books until I see an editor credited.Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999997842.4038364 -94.329377299999976 42.5911024 -94.00665429999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-48175392371908686272017-10-21T09:31:00.002-05:002023-07-19T00:56:56.639-05:00I said yes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been roommates, best friends, Navy buddies, and long-distance besties with someone for almost thirty years now. On April 2, 1988 I knew it was a thing when he agreed to go see Beetlejuice with me a second time even though my loud laugh embarrassed him.<br />
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We talked about it, I nagged him into talking about it about ten years ago and he wasn't up for it then. There were familial concerns on both our parts. His family is important to me and I wouldn't want to alienate them and the whole idea was still sort of new at the time so we waited.<br />
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I'd left it at that. Unbeknownst to me, he hadn't. He'd talked to several of them without me knowing about it both then, in the intervening years, and again recently.<br />
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I was completely surprised when he asked me if I still wanted to marry him and I found myself holding an already mostly filled out marriage application. I grinned like an idiot and said "yes." It turns out there's a three-day wait between getting the license and being able to get married in Iowa. I wasn't willing to risk him changing his mind so I found a district judge willing to waive the waiting period and thirty hours after he asked me if I still wanted to we were standing in front of the magistrate. His Mom who wasn't a fan of it for religious reasons and who I did NOT think would show up, did. I was glad she did. Otherwise, it was just two friends of ours to serve as witnesses.<br />
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Through the legal hoops and getting signatures, I was constantly surprised at how happy for us the people seemed. There wasn't any shocked recoiling or clutching at pearls and swooning at the idea of two guys getting married. Nobody was anything but excited in any of the various offices I visited. Even the judge who had hurt his hand when the guard fell off a leaf blower he was using was in the spirit of it all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW3cndScH6PIwuv_q67G58c6y6S-Zpm3ObxC8Wl8yKGwzcuKkayREVTwNCjbmVX94wmXk_f3yrTdnj7pCw5kz3P-QL4V_1AtkrgSjo-KhS4khujgQ1lmhTCsn1VLaHm8ER1ta/s1600/IMG_4423%252B4.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW3cndScH6PIwuv_q67G58c6y6S-Zpm3ObxC8Wl8yKGwzcuKkayREVTwNCjbmVX94wmXk_f3yrTdnj7pCw5kz3P-QL4V_1AtkrgSjo-KhS4khujgQ1lmhTCsn1VLaHm8ER1ta/s320/IMG_4423%252B4.JPG" width="320" /></a>What I found most surprising though was how, in spite of us being so close for so long, and not believing this would change much, we both got nervous trembling excited voice and big stupid grins when saying the vows to each other. I hadn't expected that from me, and certainly not from super-stoic him. It made me smile.<br />
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Shortly after the ceremony in front of the judge I ran to the coffee shop, because I do that whenever there is any sort of opening in my schedule and I said to the barista, a long time friend, that since I was hitched now I could finally let myself go. He laughed. Half an hour later my phone rang, "You know what I just realized? I can let myself go now!" I laughed and told him what I'd said to Kaleb and he laughed too. "I guess we do think alike."<br />
<br />
So, yeah. We're married now, and I'm pretty happy about it.Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999997842.4038364 -94.329377299999976 42.5911024 -94.00665429999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-69120214340805981132017-09-16T20:02:00.002-05:002017-09-16T20:02:33.395-05:00It was a good day...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebN_-0jpSwmCFydU9a_f3HpmNiLC-omxRt9dsUwI5vYWdhxjcztbChZXzdVrVoIJty4C4XdAe13X9LdpJblm5G3T2RDXHjS0xasCofYsMP49pWs0VMvWqadCAabSdu4H6gKiq/s1600/20170916_143728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebN_-0jpSwmCFydU9a_f3HpmNiLC-omxRt9dsUwI5vYWdhxjcztbChZXzdVrVoIJty4C4XdAe13X9LdpJblm5G3T2RDXHjS0xasCofYsMP49pWs0VMvWqadCAabSdu4H6gKiq/s320/20170916_143728.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://soldiercreekwinery.com/" target="_blank">Soldier Creek Winery</a> vineyard</td></tr>
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Some days lately I don't do much. I don't mean I don't do much productive. I mean I don't do much period. I'm going off of an anti-depressant and one of the side effects is I'm tired all the time. Another is that I'm irritable sometimes and another is that I get paranoid sometimes. Now, all those things sound manageable when I know they're about to happen... and to someone who's never experienced it, it sounds pretty minor. And, really, considering the lists of side-effects some people go through, they really are minor. It's only really troublesome when I don't recognize that it's unreasonable. It seems like it would be something you'd notice right away, but that's the funny thing about the brain... it's pretty good at believing what it perceives is real actually IS real. And most of the time, for most people that's true. But sometimes when it gets confused it's not helpful. And then getting a confused mind to convince itself that it's confused so it can relax and stop panicking or wanting to throw something heavy across the room is harder than you'd think. But, I manage. It'll go away soon... pretty sure anyway.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XBoDYBzgse_xJm5RMsXATOYpb2kqMnK9TvdDd9W3mBufXjjlXvQ22XLsVQ6aB237RpwAWkZM-bzMlwK_JHN5MwSrwp-ygdoDPq_KdJzJ_Mj15AzWa5pPeRxRLBf7TLHYUYrq/s1600/20170916_144848_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XBoDYBzgse_xJm5RMsXATOYpb2kqMnK9TvdDd9W3mBufXjjlXvQ22XLsVQ6aB237RpwAWkZM-bzMlwK_JHN5MwSrwp-ygdoDPq_KdJzJ_Mj15AzWa5pPeRxRLBf7TLHYUYrq/s320/20170916_144848_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New coasters from a vendor at <a href="http://soldiercreekwinery.com/" target="_blank">the winery</a>.</td></tr>
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When you go from one stop light to the next and notice the car behind you is STILL behind you and a fight or flight response kicks in because you're now convinced they're following you and mean you harm, complete with shallow breathing and trying to figure out a plan because somehow my response to fear is anger so I go from momentarily frightened to furious... it's really exciting. Now, mostly I'm able to catch myself and point out that I'm being irrational and this is, in fact, simply my brain juices sloshing around wildly as things get back to normal... mostly. I'm tapering off them, but it's sort of a big taper and that's okay. Once things settle down at the new lower dose I'll evaluate if I should go down again or just stay there for a while. I would like to know if they're working; if I need them or not anymore. But it's hard to tell if I don't go off them, you know? I think I'm better, which the doctor tells me means they're working... or I'm better. Which is it? Hard to tell lol. I'll figure it out. No worries. Oh, and if anybody reads the list and sees suicide as one of them, well, it is, but knowing that is a thing there are currently no guns in the house. I'm not a complete idiot... also, less likely to shoot the mailman delivering a package this way too. Can't trust my brain right now. It lies to me and I believe it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41ufZtQVUzXiGhqnTAc9Jm0-w6rIx70qDpoWMGemv2cQ3MDj2t0OMPZgnX70eFStOkt7BPnNkLIwEh0Sw0FeKwSKXjO37Yefsi1xh09b4wj6IUupujHn-27VVBwlai8xQ1en2/s1600/IMG_20170916_143016_131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41ufZtQVUzXiGhqnTAc9Jm0-w6rIx70qDpoWMGemv2cQ3MDj2t0OMPZgnX70eFStOkt7BPnNkLIwEh0Sw0FeKwSKXjO37Yefsi1xh09b4wj6IUupujHn-27VVBwlai8xQ1en2/s320/IMG_20170916_143016_131.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicago dog, music by some buddies and grape stomping</td></tr>
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But while it's happening it's really real... like the kind of real in a dream where you know it's a dream but you still have to get away from that THING that's just behind you in the dark that you can hear but you can't see? You know you're dreaming but you can't stop yourself. You feel the terror, the fear, the panic. Well, that's what this is like sometimes. I don't get it as much when I don't go out so I stay home and play video games or sleep. Or I work... a lot. I've worked 7 of the past 8 days. That's a lot of 12 hours shifts lol.<br />
<br />
Today though, I went to bed about 7AM (I'm on nights and got off work at 6AM) Woke up about 11AM, showered, coffeed up, and went to <a href="http://soldiercreekwinery.com/" target="_blank">Soldier Creek Winery</a> here in town where they were having a grape stomping thing with vendors, live music, and many people, several of whom I knew. I felt like a social butterfly as I was greeted repeatedly by people who seemed glad to see me. :) It was nice. But, after a couple hours of that, it was time to go. Oh, I ate food there too. I had a Chicago dog and a bratwurst with spicy mustard. Both were delicious.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg99ATwZBuMLCh3n3BA7VdqaJCrtyUcCF_si3-RMz8X2-xuml1OdT98czJ3R8S6Y47hAW4smmQcz3RnQB-e-kXfY2Bn4x4DOul37eJK6SCru-tWODxhMUlwEkgkzegGbp7HsTg2/s1600/IMG_20170916_151322_097.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg99ATwZBuMLCh3n3BA7VdqaJCrtyUcCF_si3-RMz8X2-xuml1OdT98czJ3R8S6Y47hAW4smmQcz3RnQB-e-kXfY2Bn4x4DOul37eJK6SCru-tWODxhMUlwEkgkzegGbp7HsTg2/s200/IMG_20170916_151322_097.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple Dumping & ice cream</td></tr>
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So, I went to the <a href="https://www.communityorchard.com/" target="_blank">Community Apple Orchard</a> and got an apple dumpling with cinnamon ice cream and a root beer in a glass bottle with real cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. It was all delicious.<br />
<br />
I followed that up with getting my laundry and bedding done, browsed the bookstore and left with two magazines, got a quick half-hour massage, shopped for food to try some new recipes and here we are. All in all, it was a good day and I like those. Now, if only I could get some sleep... not yet though. I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule.<br />
<br />Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-87299755860407824332017-09-11T16:19:00.000-05:002017-09-11T16:19:17.563-05:00Sometimes, just sometimes, I miss managing.At break someone said, "Supervisor said we have a morale problem."<br />
<br />
I said:<br />
<br />
<i>We don't have a morale problem. Morale problems are a symptom. It's never the problem. The problem is attention. People value what is noticed. The first Toyota Prius looked like a normal car. It wasn't noticed. People want to do good things for the environment, but they want to be noticed for it. When Toyota changed the design to the distinctive look it has now people were noticed for being green and they sold like crazy. Being noticed counts.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>When a press is making bad product and the mechanic notices, it's not the press' fault. It's the mechanic's fault. If an employee is on their cell phone or not doing their quality checks, or is charging their phone out in plain sight and the supervisor doesn't say anything it's not the employee's fault when it keeps happening. When a supervisor spends more time hanging out and shooting the shit with employees and trying to be their friend and their boss notices and does nothing it's not the supervisor's fault. It's the plant manager's fault. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>We all see these things. We all know who the employees are who are slacking and and we know the supervisors that know it. We see them. They see us see them, and they don't care. They don't care that we don't call them on doing their job. (wrong pronoun... I still self-identify as management - oops)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I get it. It's hard to tell someone "do your job" but that IS their job. If they're not going to do it that attitude, that laziness, that "well, maybe it'll fix itself" attitude spreads like oil on water and it's a problem. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>So, people notice bosses not noticing. They assume they don't care, that the supervisors aren't invested, that it isn't important, that the work THEY do, the good employees do, isn't important, and they feel devalued. They feel like they don't matter. And they feel it because those higher than them, those who are supposed to notice the value of the employees, to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior aren't doing their job, they aren't noticing. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You can't train a puppy to not piss or shit on the floor by hugging it and cuddling it and hoping it'll figure it out. That's not how it works. You get a very friendly, very messy puppy, and a floor you can't walk across. That's where we are now. There are piles of shit everywhere and the supervisors and bosses just put on taller boots and look at those below them, us, and wonder why we're so grumpy and smell like shit.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Well, look up and around for the problem, not down. Looking down isn't the answer. Looking down is about blaming and not fixing.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>No, morale isn't a problem. This ship has no captain and forty-seven stewards bringing us fresh towels as we careen wildly around the Atlantic hoping we don't hit anything.</i><br />
<br />
I stopped, realized I'd gotten a little erm... passionate, and said, "Well, that or we're just a grumpy bunch of bitches. Sorry."<br />
<br />
"Dude. You should be a supervisor."<br />
"I was for like fifteen years."<br />
"I mean here."<br />
"Hell no. Y'all are a bunch of grumpy bitches."<br />
Everyone laughed... but money says what I said is repeated.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's frustrating to see a job that I've done and know I'm good at, be done badly by people who are afraid if they try and DO the job that people won't like them. No, asshat. People will like and respect a boss more who IS a boss than one who is their buddy and doesn't do anything to fix things but joins in the gripefests. Sometimes I miss management. I was good at it. Part of the problem is the skill set that gets trained and tested for to be management is to be good with the machines, but the supervisors don't supervise machines. They supervise people.Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-87883224125226912472017-09-09T17:02:00.000-05:002017-09-09T17:03:58.400-05:00Book Review: The Black Wolves of Boston<div dir="ltr">
I don't remember who suggested <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/The%20Black%20Wolves%20of%20Boston%20https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4K3XSZ">The Black Wolves of Boston</a> to me or where I heard about it. When I got it and started it I was under the impression it was a young adult urban fantasy with werewolves, vampires, and witches. </div>
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I was enjoying it and liked the characters and then noticed it had a <u>lot</u> of um... There was sexual tension, and at one point an implied hand job between a 300 year old vampire and a just before college teen... I was confused. What sort of urban fantasy was I reading?</div>
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Oops. It's a romance urban fantasy and not a YA urban fantasy. That's not what I'd wanted or what I normally read even. But, it was well written, the characters were well developed and likable and the world was interesting and well developed so I kept reading. </div>
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I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't want to give away too much but the newly made werewolf is a straight boy who is also a bisexual wolf which makes for interesting situations. </div>
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I recommended it. I'm not sure if I'll get others in the series or not. I don't know if I want to be a guy that reads romantic fantasy.</div>
Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-53045380439281548342017-09-09T15:09:00.000-05:002017-09-09T15:09:38.011-05:00Fallout 4: Billy, the kid in the fridgeAs you know may or may not know, I’ve been playing a lot of Fallout 4... a lot... more than I’ll admit to so don’t even ask. If forced I’ll lie. Don’t make me lie.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hbKr-s2JlaBJY6Vy5Pkjp1FAmnLU1ZcZH_lwFk9GobHZVqPQerU7TkHiW5tECsfkxfqckbxPfYDOaF0m2nrVBAfk4CWkkeCQE8VKV9U0a18jx2MivwKrAXcwZOJBQvi_G3Ll/s1600/fridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="317" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hbKr-s2JlaBJY6Vy5Pkjp1FAmnLU1ZcZH_lwFk9GobHZVqPQerU7TkHiW5tECsfkxfqckbxPfYDOaF0m2nrVBAfk4CWkkeCQE8VKV9U0a18jx2MivwKrAXcwZOJBQvi_G3Ll/s320/fridge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I was on the way back to I dunno, wandering around or something and I heard coming from behind a house, the sound of someone yelling to let them out. What the heck? A mission! I was super excited because it’d probably be a quick one.<br />
<br />
So, I toddled off to look behind the house and what do I see? A fridge!! Oh please... please let the person in the fridge be named Indy. Turns out the kid in the fridge (That’s the name of the quest too) climbed in the fridge to escape the nuclear bombs 200 years ago. Sadly, the radiation turned him into a ghoul. Ghoul’s are radiation ruined people... I say ruined, but they can live forever and don’t get tired or need sleep really... sometimes they sleep though... I dunno. The lore is a little odd on the needs of ghouls. But here he is, literally the very first ghoul-kid I can remember seeing. Now, there may have been more. But I don’t remember them. I remember normal kids, unmutated ones, but no muties, ghouls as they’re called in game. Well, I opened it and he wasn’t called Indy. His name was Billy.He’s pretty burnt up, turns out radiation DOES make it through a fridge. Sorry, Indiana Jones. You should be a ghoul now... and kinda he’s turning into one. Some people age better than others.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKL4-NZGfn-rZAKYnrRde3QwB_Saofh5HlN1hRp5h7RAFkt_1WodgGK6mOAFXC4bxR67J1lQ1DKKaW_ZtgOS4n7ts7SzC89eteFf-_E7-MlJYmzzufsLs-rgCVFnjW0siCy6bc/s1600/billy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="723" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKL4-NZGfn-rZAKYnrRde3QwB_Saofh5HlN1hRp5h7RAFkt_1WodgGK6mOAFXC4bxR67J1lQ1DKKaW_ZtgOS4n7ts7SzC89eteFf-_E7-MlJYmzzufsLs-rgCVFnjW0siCy6bc/s320/billy.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Anyway. While talking to Billy the ghoul I find he’s been locked in there for 200 years and he wants me to take him home to see his parents because, as he looks around at the devastated landscape, a result of nuclear war and two hundred years of zero-highway maintenance, he realizes things don’t look familiar to him anymore, and he doesn’t think he can find the way back.<br />
<br />
I said I would but not before THIS guy shows up and makes a strange request. Now, I’ve HEARD of slavers and raiders and I’ve killed my share of raiders and gang members throughout the game but this guy, his name is Bullet by the way, pops up while I’m walking the ghoul home, fully expecting to find a blown up house and get to watch Billy fall to his knees cry, wail, "Whyyyyy?" or something like that.<br />
<br />
What does Bullet want? Why, Bullet wants to buy Billy. Of all the ghouls I’ve saved, interacted with, worked with, and fought alongside this is the first time someone has tried to buy one and he wants to buy the only ghoul-kid I remember seeing in the game? Um, that’s effed up.<br />
<br />
So, I ask him "Why? Why do you want to buy Billy?"<br />
<br />
He says because ghouls don’t need rest or sleep or food and make great slaves.<br />
<br />
So, I say "No! You don't buy people!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnz2MBKEV6zHHWkik0FYKL1SiilYsv0ZfqsRqi1fWVi_aTSNRIaTLt7gP1VocS9hqkVoo2yAcveoqAaouvdNKWqwtE8GLXHzMilCqVWDqmAALx0EQu4fLfn2A8vDRzNouQjc5/s1600/bullet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnz2MBKEV6zHHWkik0FYKL1SiilYsv0ZfqsRqi1fWVi_aTSNRIaTLt7gP1VocS9hqkVoo2yAcveoqAaouvdNKWqwtE8GLXHzMilCqVWDqmAALx0EQu4fLfn2A8vDRzNouQjc5/s320/bullet.jpg" width="320" /></a>He doesn’t even get mad. He acts like he’s just asked me for a piece of gum and I’ve said, "Oh, sorry. This was my last piece." He just turns and walks away.<br />
<br />
Now, I’m not a bad guy in this game, not really. I’ve been playing this game pretty straight-laced. I hardly steal at all and I only do drugs sometimes. But, with a silent apology to Billy for what’s about to happen... I pull out my high-powered rifle with a bitching scope on it and drop into a crouch. Well, the stars aligned because I managed to critical hit the guy in the back of the head.<br />
<br />
I'd intended to simply kill him. What I hadn't intended to do right in front of FridgeBilly was to blow Bullet's head completely off his shoulders resulting in gouts of blood spray from his neck stump as he crumpled to the ground. Oops. Sorry if I grossed you out Billy.<br />
<br />
I’ll put up with a lot, I really will... but nobody should be buying or selling kids that’ve been stuck in a fridge for 200 years... wait. I don’t really need to qualify that. Kids shouldn’t be sold, period.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDTP6MgfnE_gLdmiAHemIVY1JuBIY8OXDzyyQltkE8JsKdqqtK6-pPOhQxVi0Guxs4NLLIeG_qBRoOHWhxpsthRKbcRNzfpoK2vr6_Te4dpz3_tCg9B3DVjtgrgg95vMvgagKJ/s1600/family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="1234" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDTP6MgfnE_gLdmiAHemIVY1JuBIY8OXDzyyQltkE8JsKdqqtK6-pPOhQxVi0Guxs4NLLIeG_qBRoOHWhxpsthRKbcRNzfpoK2vr6_Te4dpz3_tCg9B3DVjtgrgg95vMvgagKJ/s320/family.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Oh, in case you were wondering? Billy got home safely. His parents were still there and had also been turned into radioactive undying hairless hideously burned ghouls as well so all's well... or as good as it gets in the Commonwealth these days. The real tragedy is the mother's shoes. I've editted them out of this picture so you won't be completely distracted. I'm surprised Billy didn't run from those when he saw them. Sure, being burned up is bad and all, but that is REALLY no excuse for wearing ugly shoes.Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-29839069945842136252017-06-15T19:29:00.003-05:002017-06-15T19:32:06.607-05:00Wonder Woman with Mom<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the drive back to their house I mentioned that I didn’t understand when people say little girls need to see role models of strong women so they know that being strong and independent and standing up for yourself is a thing that is possible for women to do. I have two sisters. They are both all those things and have been since they were little. It’s always been my assumption that kids, both kinds, are born with a strong sense of self and an inborn sense of what they will and won’t put up with, a sense a fairness and being treated fairly is just sort of there, as well as a sense of standing up for one’s self and the idea that they can do anything. I’ve always seen that as being something that kids have when they’re kids. Some kids grow out of it... but it has always felt like something kids are born with to me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, if someone is worried their kids are being socialized out of that... if they’re seeing their little girls turn into princesses instead of generals... that seems to me as if they’re allowing something ELSE to be more important to the kid than they, as parents are. I don’t think my parents ever considered for a minute that it was possible or that it would be put up with for the opinions or lessons of tv, movies, or commercials to be more important to us than they (our parents) were. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not a parent. I was a brother and my two sisters grew up to be: One, a Marine that worked on attack helicopters I think, and the other a scientist who then went into law, specifically intellectual property law in the very narrow field in which she was a scientist. Those are not fields that are typically “for girls” but I’m almost sure neither of them ever considered that as an obstacle but did what they wanted to do because they wanted to do it. We were brought up to do what we want to do and obstacles may be there, but they’re not insurmountable. Most things will eventually yield if you smash yourself against it with all your will and intelligence and determination enough times. That was what we were taught. That’s what we saw our parents doing over and over again. Did they have problems or stresses and were they sometimes tired and overwhelmed? Yep. I’m sure of it. But they didn’t stop as far as I ever saw and they taught us not to either. We lucked out in the parent lottery.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lesson we learned was if you do your best and failed you’d done all you could have done and now it was time to find out what went wrong, address that, and try again, but don’t half-ass it. Don’t give up. Don’t decide it’s too hard because too hard just means too lazy and lazy isn’t okay. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, raise strong girls. Raise strong boys who recognize that strong girls are good to have around and they aren’t a threat but an asset. Encourage it, but don’t assume it’s not already there in the very young. I’m sure it is, and remember that they will be who they saw you being and they’re watching. God knows they’re watching and listening and remembering so make sure you’re the person you want them to grow up to be. Model the behavior. Show them what strength is. Show them what determination looks like. Show them what it looks like to not pay attention to the limits other people want to put on you. Let them see you living it and doing it. If you have to, fake it and fake it convincingly. I’m sure there were times when my parents were staring at something like a house and yard hit by a hurricane and a house fire and 3 kids and and and... and they kept on going and just did what needed doing and we kids didn’t know how hard it was. We just saw them doing what needed doing and then it was done. That’s what all three of us learned: boys & girls alike learned it from seeing it, and today, we’re doing it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I was glad to see the movie with her but when I think of strong women I don’t think of Gal Gadot. I think of my Mom, my two amazing sisters, I think of my Granny, and my various aunts, my 103-year-old Great Aunt Annie who raised her siblings and has buried many of them if not all... outlived her parents, and some of her kids even. Those are my wonder women.</span></div>
Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-36190243168477116132017-05-09T13:16:00.001-05:002017-05-09T13:24:55.716-05:001st run of the seasonRan today for real. Not just walking or mostly walking I don't think. Maybe by time, but distance I think was more running. I'm not sure.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="https://www.strava.com/activities/978450721/embed/ad5e20be92cd5220b24e949305937a6b1c6056bd" width="590"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8NpN_Sl-SSUDhblk6QIRW0nvxQvi1rf_ofuEgF-BnPt_Jz_GfxVxzWW6TemrkrHzXU4CUMy0EBzJUT1HgPzA8btnLS4JkIXjhOhDCjv2U77xp4-v92k02_ARFb6hhO0zx527b/s1600/20170509_111300_HDR-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8NpN_Sl-SSUDhblk6QIRW0nvxQvi1rf_ofuEgF-BnPt_Jz_GfxVxzWW6TemrkrHzXU4CUMy0EBzJUT1HgPzA8btnLS4JkIXjhOhDCjv2U77xp4-v92k02_ARFb6hhO0zx527b/s320/20170509_111300_HDR-01.jpeg" width="319" /></a>It's nice to put on the shoes and be able to do a little running again. Yes, it was only two miles. Yes, I know it took almost half an hour. Like I said, there was some walking in there but it was my first run of the season so I'm okay with it. If I can get back into doing it as a habit it'll improve. If I can't get it turned into a habit then you're going to see lots of these little runs where I feel super motivated for a little while and then a long period of silence about running. I'm hoping that's not what happens.<br />
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No, it wasn't a great run but statistically, odds are, it's better than most of the people I know online or off so I'll take it, and, like I said, if I can get back in the groove of things it's just the beginning.<br />
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Oh, the picture's unrelated. I just stopped to take a picture of a bee.<br />
<br />Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.517283392082064 -94.18424606323242242.511431392082066 -94.194331063232426 42.523135392082061 -94.174161063232418tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-6542025955703532162017-04-22T21:11:00.000-05:002017-04-22T21:11:40.298-05:00A motif: A disturbing, atrocious motifWhile doing some research on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Dorman" target="_blank">Isaiah "Teat" Dorman</a> (The only black man to die at Custer's Last Stand) and Inkpaduta I came across something I keep seeing coming up when someone describes an enemy they want to make sure we, the reader, know is a vile and horrible enemy or that something is truly terrible.<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.historynet.com/spirit-lake-massacre.htm" target="_blank">Inkpaduta</a> is said to have dashed a baby's head out by holding the baby by the ankles and swinging it like a bat. Not all the sources say this is the case, the one I'm linking to, for example, doesn't say HOW the baby's head was dashed in with the stove wood.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chankiri_Tree" target="_blank">Cankiri Tree</a> was made by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia specifically for the soldiers to do the same thing to babies and small children of their opponents.</li>
<li>I've heard, but can't find it online, where the Mongols were supposed to have done this as well during their rampage across Asia and Europe.</li>
<li><a href="http://biblehub.com/psalms/137-9.htm" target="_blank">Psalm 137:9</a> even mentions it: <i>Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks</i></li>
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Why am I mentioning it? Well, it's a thing when researching something historic where the accounts are all anecdotal, from letters, from stories told by people instead of pictures or video, to be aware of. If you hear something once, at one place, it may be a thing. But when you hear it over and over again... maybe it's a thing. Maybe it's real, but maybe you need to dig a little bit and make sure you're not just reading something that sounds good.</div>
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Where does this fall in that for my Inkpaduta & Isaiah Dorman research? Well, I can't find a reliable source I'm willing to hang my hat on with it so I'm leaving it out. Everybody agrees the baby was beaten to death, but since most of those beat to death in the head were done so with the butt of a rifle it's just as likely that was what happened. Possibly while the infant was laying on the pile of stove wood. I'm not willing to say he swung the kid like a baseball bat.</div>
Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180610.post-56875072359278357012017-04-12T05:31:00.001-05:002017-04-12T05:31:57.432-05:00Wait. You mean I've gotten old? When did that happen?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching #DoctorWho and as luck would have it this was the one on BBCAmerica tonight so I watched it even though it's an old one. It's one of my favorite and he's my favorite Doctor. Although Rory & Amy's love story is my favorite story arc of all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, this isn't all that Doctor Who related but it's sort of Time-related, yeah? Yeah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realized last week and when I say this you're going to think I've lost my mind, or maybe you won't. I imagine it'll depend on how old you are. Me? I'm forty-eight. This past week I realized, and I'm not sure what prompted it, that, let me start over. I've always assumed I'd have a kid. I'm not sure why or when, but I sort of felt like at some point I'd be a dad and there'd be a kid and school and field trip notes and teaching to drive and having them go through a phase where I'm an idiot and hopefully they'd grow out of it and think I was a pretty okay person. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZF7EvqNgPkE9p_bpY76ltrjmfPsZOyAshE31vrpEjEIJkrG_r3jbHiPkVt7_5AaoR1wmIj6wY8_V0M_EMH0RtblGSQBFZCrCYwfZ68_x8g31MPxoZfUU9MssFMso_cGOHG6l/s1600/writing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZF7EvqNgPkE9p_bpY76ltrjmfPsZOyAshE31vrpEjEIJkrG_r3jbHiPkVt7_5AaoR1wmIj6wY8_V0M_EMH0RtblGSQBFZCrCYwfZ68_x8g31MPxoZfUU9MssFMso_cGOHG6l/s320/writing.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know why I thought that and I didn't realize until last week just how strongly I felt like that was something that was going to happen. And last week I realized if I found a person right now who said, "Put a baby in me you big hunka man," and got started right then and there I'd be um... 66 when they graduated. Um, sixty-six? What the hell? Also, what woman of safe & sane baby-making age is going to look at an almost fifty-year-old man and say, "We should totally get sweaty and roll around on the ground together and exchange fluid and mingle our DNA into some sort of unholy abomination of a baby." I can answer that, no sane woman. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwI0c104HYTFlyPderG1YsnFTONGfqxr3ZVDNomVCTgmyasl-OvW_LZEMga_R9A6p6lRTlCoVOI3uS-tUuC3fQjY2amDhWF5qb4sEOpicu8_DBS1qp0wyWEGQ3mgv8RTPke-kE/s1600/hairsoph.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwI0c104HYTFlyPderG1YsnFTONGfqxr3ZVDNomVCTgmyasl-OvW_LZEMga_R9A6p6lRTlCoVOI3uS-tUuC3fQjY2amDhWF5qb4sEOpicu8_DBS1qp0wyWEGQ3mgv8RTPke-kE/s320/hairsoph.jpeg" width="292" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, last week I realized I wasn't going to be a dad because when I wasn't paying attention I got too old. Before you say anything about movie stars doing it etc. I'm not a movie star. I make cat food cans. Hell, that is a bit glorified. I stack the cat food can ends (You'd call them "lids" but you're wrong, trust me, I'm old I know these things) on pallets. I don't actually FEEL old. I feel about thirty or so. I really didn't notice that I'd entered softly and silently into an age beyond which being a kid's dad was contraindicated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was kind of a depressing blow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, also this week, I got an e-mail fro my parents saying my Dad had health issues that are of the older person variety. Very carefully NOT saying he's old in case he reads this. But me being old means he's probably a bit oldish as well. Anyway, so, suddenly, without my paying any attention at all I've come face to face with my own mortality and I don't like it one bit. So, I thought I'd watch some good old fashioned escapist TV and turned on some Doctor Who. What should happen? Turns out it's one of my top two favorite episodes ever... also one in which The Doctor dies. Of course it is. But dangit... it's got Wilfred in it and I love that crusty old man. Like seriously. I know it's irrational, but at my age, I'm prone to irrationality. I should point out I've been saying that for years, decades now apparently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway. The past week has been a little bit rubbish, can you tell I've been watching British TV? Yeah. I have, and I like it a lot. I don't like the past week much though. No, I don't like it at all. So, if you see me looking off into space a bit wistfully I'm probably thinking about all the things I didn't do with my non-existent kid. Don't sweat it. The mood will pass. I'm not even really that sad about it anymore, just surprised that I got this old this fast without noticing. It seems like something you'd notice, doesn't it?</span>Rich Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00209649944081991872noreply@blogger.com0Fort Dodge, IA 50501, USA42.4974694 -94.16801579999997842.4038364 -94.329377299999976 42.5911024 -94.00665429999998